Open Media and ClearChannel have partnered with the Teenage Cancer Trust for a new campaign highlighting the difference the charity has made to cancer care for teenagers and young adults since its inception in 1990.
Teenage Cancer Trust’s in-house creative team were tasked with creating an ad campaign that highlighted the core problem that the charity tackles – the need for specialist, age-appropriate care for teenagers and young adults with cancer.
The resulting design plays on the phrase ‘Cancer care wasn’t made for young people’, highlighting both the problem and the solution that Teenage Cancer Trust’s specialist units, nurses and youth workers provide.
James Robertson, head of creative at Teenage Cancer Trust, said: ‘The insight we’ve had over the last few years suggested that a lot of people were aware of us, but there was a still a lack of awareness about what Teenage Cancer Trust do, or why we’re needed.
“We felt that the best way to address this was to simply refer to our roots and focus on the core problem that our founders set out to solve. We had a healthcare system that was unable to provide the age-appropriate care and support that young people needed. Teenage Cancer Trust was, and still is, the solution.”
As with all Teenage Cancer Trust’s work, the creative was informed by the lived experiences of the young people it supports.
Robertson said: “We reflected on a recent piece of content that Shell Rowe, a woman who was supported by Teenage Cancer Trust, had recently posted on TikTok. The experience she shared about being faced with cancer when you’re ‘not a kid, but not quite an adult’ in a healthcare system that ‘wasn’t built for young people’ felt powerful and reflected our core purpose.
“The familiar challenge we faced when developing creative to articulate this, was how do you keep the strength of these words, meet the objective of building understanding of us, and the part we play, while creating an ad that’s eye-catching and engaging. We knew that meant a clean design, uncomplicated by anything too clever or conceptual. Word count is always a struggle with out of home, you only have a couple of seconds of attention and then it’s gone. But we found a solution by focusing on the problem and simply correcting it, and the result is a statement that articulates both the problem and our position as the solution.”
The campaign will run across OOH nationwide with Teenage Cancer Trust’s partner ClearChannel, launching this week, with accompanying social media content across all the charity’s channels.
Warren Fiveash, head of marketing, added: “We can’t thank Clear Channel enough for their support with this campaign – from design advice to media space. Their Platform for Good is changing the lives of so many and helping us to increase awareness of what we do. We also extend our thanks to Open Media who have been a great support to the campaign.”
