The Estée Lauder companies' breast cancer campaign reaches 25-year milestone
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SUMMARY
Estée Lauder Companies, a manufacturer and marketer of prestige skincare, makeup and fragrance, launched a campaign to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its breast cancer awareness campaign in North America.
- Estée Lauder needed to raise quality awareness of Evelyn H Lauder's legacy to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the company's breast cancer awareness campaign, which Evelyn launched.
- Estée Lauder evolved the campaign by changing the name to Breast Cancer Campaign, defining a clear mission and introducing a visual of a tattered pink ribbon to symbolise hard work and the hope that in the next 25 years there will be no need for a pink ribbon.
- Estée Lauder developed a series of executions such as media interviews, an integrated effort with Delta Airways, a documentary, limited-edition Pink Ribbon products and social fundraising efforts.
- The campaign earned over 338 million media impressions, including 24 feature stories, resulting in 63% Instagram growth.
Campaign details
Brand: Estee Lauder
Agency: M Booth
Situation Analysis
25 years ago, women were dying from breast cancer and no one was talking about it. Evelyn H. Lauder decided to do something about it, and sparked a movement that would change breast cancer history. At the time, there were inadequate prevention strategies, screening methods were limited, and treatment options were few. A breast cancer diagnosis was tantamount to a death sentence, and the world stood by silently.
Evelyn H. Lauder believed awareness was the way forward and launched The Estée Lauder Companies' Breast Cancer Campaign (formerly known as The Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign). Her work ignited a global movement that helped fund innovative research and inspired meaningful action against the disease. She co-created the iconic Pink Ribbon, distributing it at beauty counters around the world. Today, the Pink Ribbon is ubiquitous with breast health and has become a worldwide symbol of hope, inspiration and dedication to finding a cure.
Since this pioneering beginning, The Campaign has been a leading voice for breast cancer awareness, providing education on breast health worldwide and funding research to bring us closer to a cure. Women and men around the world speak more openly about the disease than ever before and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation® (BCRF) – founded in 1993 by Evelyn H. Lauder – is now the highest-rated, non-profit breast cancer organization in the US dedicated to eradicating breast cancer. Despite this significant progress, and that Evelyn H. Lauder is still widely regarded as a visionary at the forefront of the movement, The Estée Lauder Companies was not receiving recognition for its work. Additionally, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide.
The impressive heritage and authentic commitment to the cause uniquely positioned The Estée Lauder Companies to re-energize the world around the cause, spark action and drive change. In October 2017, The Campaign would reach its 25th Anniversary, providing an ideal opportunity to honor the legacy of Evelyn H. Lauder and The Campaign while putting a firm stake in the ground to solidify its commitment to finding a cure: it's time to end breast cancer and create a breast cancer-free world.
Objectives
- Generate elevated and quality awareness, specifically emphasizing Evelyn H. Lauder's legacy
- Drive action and participation in fundraising efforts
- Inspire key opinion leaders and organizations to endorse our mission
Our Strategy
- Shape the brand narrative around the last 25 years of work, spotlighting Evelyn H. Lauder's legacy, and put a stake in the ground for the future;
- Leverage partners – both existing and new – to discuss The Campaign history;
- Issue a call-to-action around an ambitious company fundraising goal.
Evolving the Campaign
To set the stage for the 25th Anniversary in a significant way, a compelling narrative, including evolving how The Campaign had historically been discussed, was key.
- New name
Today, breast cancer has the global spotlight it deserves and women and men are familiar with the necessary steps to support their breast health. Additionally, throughout its 25-year history, The Campaign has continued to execute much more than awareness-driving efforts alone, ultimately raising more than $70m to support global research, education and medical services. As a result, the decision was made to remove 'awareness' from the Campaign name, changing it to simply The Estée Lauder Companies' Breast Cancer Campaign, just in time for its 25-year milestone.
- Clear mission and goal
To move into the future with a new rally, we articulated a clearly-defined mission
– to create a breast cancer-free world – and committed to our largest-ever, one-year fundraising goal of $8m, a 33% increase from 2016.
- Provocative visual
To mark the 25th Anniversary, The Campaign introduced a bold, thought-provoking visual of a tattered pink ribbon, showing the wear and tear of 25 years of hard work and impact trying to cure this disease. It also represents that in 25 years from now we hope there is no need for a pink ribbon because breast cancer will be committed to the history books.
- Real progress
To date, The Campaign has funded 225 medical research grants through BCRF, and we worked with the non-profit to give more meaning to this number by identifying compelling real-world results:
Breast cancer mortality rates have decreased by 38% since the late 1980s.
Five-year survival rates are better than 90% when breast cancer is found early.
Treatments are being customized to a person's type of breast cancer, as breast cancer was revealed to be not one disease, but several different types.
Surgery is not as invasive, and most women can have a lumpectomy and not a full breast removal (mastectomy).
The Launch
October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, is the most important time for the Campaign, and is critical to setting the stage for the rest of the year. We developed a series of executions to kick off in a big way:
Activated The Campaign's long-time spokesperson Elizabeth Hurley to conduct media interviews and engage with the public.
Partnered with Delta and BCRF to launch an integrated effort to inspire action: Hurley surprised passengers on a series of flights, discussing The Campaign, distributing pink ribbons and asking travelers to support BCRF; a feature story was included in Delta Sky Magazine for more info and all partners amplified through social posts.
Director Sophy Holland directed a documentary, Unraveling The Pink Ribbon: Creating a Breast Cancer-Free World, honoring Evelyn H. Lauder, the larger breast cancer movement, the 25 years of The Campaign and sharing our vision for the future.
William P. Lauder, Executive Chairman of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. and son of the late Evelyn H. Lauder, rang the Closing Bell at the New York Stock Exchange, shared The Campaign history and path forward in employee events and participated in key media interviews.
Inspiring Action
To meet the ambitious $8m fundraising goal, we needed to make it easy for the public and employees to join in and support the cause. We launched a variety of ways to get involved:
Purchase limited-edition Pink Ribbon Products: Fifteen of The Estée Lauder Companies' brands, including Aveda, Bobbi Brown, Bumble and bumble, Clinique, Darphin, DKNY, Donna Karan, Estée Lauder, Jo Malone London, La Mer, Lab Series, Origins, Prescriptives, Smashbox, Tom Ford Beauty and Tory Burch are contributing by selling Pink Ribbon Products or making donations to the BCRF and/or other charitable organizations around the world
A social fundraising effort, in which The Estée Lauder Companies donated $25 to fund a half-hour of breast cancer research through BCRF for every unique post on Instagram or Twitter with both #PinkRibbon25 and #ELCdonates between September 15th, 2017 and October 31st, 2017.
A first-of-its-kind opportunity to donate through Instagram and use the platform's 'shoppable' functionality for good – users can click inspirational content and donate directly to BCRF in lieu of actual products by clicking on select @bcacampaign posts.
Galvanized The Estée Lauder Companies' employees around the world to participate in walks, fundraisers, auctions, concerts and other events to benefit BCRF and local breast cancer charities.
Driving Broad Awareness
A 360-marketing campaign was launched to help drive awareness of The Campaign and its 25th Anniversary activation:
PR-led initiatives included a robust media strategy to drive a groundswell of coverage:
- Strategically offered advance first looks and exclusive assets to key outlets, such as providing E! with the first interview with Elizabeth Hurley in JFK right after she made her appearance on the Delta London-to-NYC flight.
- Secured feature pieces honoring the 25th Anniversary by leveraging Hurley and ELC leadership to share the story of Evelyn H. Lauder's pioneering mission and The Campaign history through the years.
- Targeted outlets with the most appropriate angles, reaching out to beauty product columns with Pink Ribbon Products and digital trade with news on the Instagram shoppable donation.
Driving broad awareness
- Storytelling on multiple social channels including that of The Campaign, The Estée Lauder Companies' global and brand platforms, and key tastemakers.
- Brand beauty counter displays to inspire action and engage consumers.
- Redesign and launch of The Campaign's website, including an interactive timeline of the last 25 years and an educational page on breast cancer statistics today.
Results
Generated elevated and quality awareness -
- 338,480,809 earned media impressions including 24 feature stories with detailed coverage on top-tier outlets including: Megyn Kelly TODAY, Glamour, E! News, People, Marie Claire, Access Hollywood.
- YouTube content of Unraveling the Pink Ribbon: Creating a Breast Cancer-Free World documentary and associated cutdowns garnered a total of nearly 500,000 impressions.
Advertising effort to secure donated spaces (print, digital and out-of-home) for The Campaign including: NYC Times Square billboard, Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, Refinery29, various digital titles of Hearst and Condé Nast, and more
Drove action and participation -
- Significant bcacampaign.com (http://bcacampaign.com) growth: sessions up 185.74% and new users up 214.71%
- Significant Instagram growth: followers increased by more than 63% year on year; 102.27% more likes and 76.4% more comments received in 2017 vs. 2016 launch period; Campaign hashtags generated 6.9 million impressions
- Average Facebook engagement rates during launch period were steady at 3.5%, surpassing industry benchmark of 2%*
Note: Social media data as of 10/16/17; website data as of 12/5/17 *According to agencies of record.
Inspired key opinion leaders and organisations -
- Secured a proclamation from the City of New York and a citation from the State of New York honoring the 25th Anniversary of the campaign.
- Influencer participation: Featuring the co-founder of The Coveteur Stephanie Mark in The Campaign documentary and securing social posts by Estée Lauder Models Kendall Jenner, Hilary Rhoda and Joan Smalls in support of the campaign.
Industry Recognition: The Campaign was honored by the CEW Foundation with the first-ever Legacy Award at the 2017 Beauty of Giving Luncheon; received the CSR award from WWD's Beauty Inc.
