A campaign to reach 6 billion people.
World Cancer Day
Campaign Identity
- Brand Strategy
- Narrative & Storytelling
- Brand Identity
- Creative Direction
- Digital & Motion Design
- Environmental Design
- Print Design
United by Unique
World Cancer Day is a global initiative held every year on February 4th, led by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC).
One of the world’s largest health initiatives, its aim is to raise awareness, drive action and create lasting change in cancer care and control at local, national and international levels.
Working closely with UICC’s senior leadership, we partnered with brand strategy consultant Richie Meldrum to build a strategy, narrative and creative direction for an overarching three year theme, design system and global awareness campaign.
Ask the right questions
A truly global campaign that needed to connect with anyone, anywhere, it was vital that the response was informed by, and reflective of, different views, perspectives, opinions and ideas gathered from all corners of the world.
For this reason, the project followed a robust design process, commencing with a comprehensive research and discovery phase.
Over 20 one-on-one research interviews were conducted with the UICC team and representatives from UICC’s member organisations around the world, including oncologists, NGOs, researchers, advocacy experts and scientific advisors and, of course, those with their own lived experience of cancer.
The research led us to one universal truth – that cancer isn’t just a medical diagnosis, it’s a deeply personal experience. Shaped by physical, emotional and situational differences, it’s unique to everyone involved. This insight drove the development of a theme territory centred around a people first approach to cancer, followed by the creation of the new three year campaign theme title ‘United by Unique’.
The orange campaign dot
The campaign creative features a bold orange circle used to frame people through striking profile imagery as a symbol of community, connection and humanity. In physical form, it became the World Cancer Day microphone used in video interviews giving people a platform to share their stories.
Empowering the people
To build global involvement, needed to empower the people. A custom online tool allowed people to create personalised posters with their own words and images, supported by a full suite of multilingual design assets, including templates, toolkits, social media graphics, posters and logo lockups.
This helped World Cancer Day become something people could own and adapt, empowering individuals and communities everywhere to shape the campaign in their own way.
A global impact
— 6bn social media impressions
— 9m engagements
— 530k website visitors
— 300k campaign video views
— 900 activities in 102 countries
— 600+ stories submitted
— 30k press mentions in 162 countries
— 50 international monuments lit up in campaign colours
