Euromelanoma is an international campaign that aims to raise awareness about melanoma and other skin cancers as well as their prevention and early diagnosis. We executed the Finnish campaign in 2015, 2016, and 2017. In the first year, the campaign was awarded as Vuoden lääkeinformaatioteko (Eng. Year’s medical information action) and the visibility of the campaign exceeded all expectations.
Starting point and goals
The international Euromelanoma campaign, founded by dermatologists, has the goal of promoting the prevention and early diagnosis of melanoma and other skin cancers. The campaign aims to raise awareness of skin cancers, their identification and their risk factors. In Finland, some 1,400 people are diagnosed with melanoma and some 11,000 with other skin cancers annually.
Finland, participating in the campaign for the first time, had the following goals:
- Increase the citizens’ awareness of skin cancers and how to prevent them
- Direct the citizens to free-of-charge mole check-ups
The campaign’s national collaboration partners in Finland were La Roche-Posay, LEO Pharma Ltd., Roche Ltd., Iholiitto ry, Association of Finnish Pharmacies, Cancer Society of Finland, and Yliopiston Apteekki.
Creative solution and execution
The main message of the creative solution was clear: An early diagnosis of a skin cancer could save your life!
At the heart of the campaign was the international Euromelanoma Day on the 19th of May, on which information sessions and free-of-charge mole check-ups with pre-registration were conducted in five cities. Anyone could pre-book an appointment and come show suspicious-looking skin changes to a dermatologist – for free.
We took up various PR measures to spread the campaign message and to encourage people to attend the free-of-charge check-ups: we produced two campaign videos, prepared marketing materials for online and hard-copy distribution as well as for our partners’ channels, and founded a Facebook campaign page. Pharmacies participated in the campaign actively by distributing over 20,000 flyers and encouraging people to go get their moles and skin changes checked.
All traffic was directed to the campaign page: http://www.euromelanoma.org/suomi