NFT culture has a preponderance of young men, the same young men whose #1 cancer risk is testicular cancer. Testicular cancer is the #1 cancer among young men, yet 62% of those who are most at risk don’t know how to check themselves. We used the power of NFTs to engage men to learn about self-exams and spread the word about Movember’s mission to promote men’s health. Each NFT encourages men to regularly perform a self-exam by rewarding them with an exclusive trait unlock, which makes their art more valuable. This keeps Movember top of mind and instills a habit of self-examination, which helps detect potential health issues early. Through the power of social sharing inherent to the NFT community, showing off one’s NFTs helps spread the word about Movember’s mission and the importance of doing self-exams while the proceeds from each NFT sale go towards testicular cancer.
At the time, NFTS were all the rage and we knew there was an opportunity to usethe cultural power and currency of this speculative asset to help people. We knew that people, especially men, monitor their NFTs—to see if they're worth more or less, if others have bought similar ones, etc.—to the tune of trading that increased 21,000 percent to $17 billion from 2020 to 2021. We wanted to tap into this behavior and routine that already existed and seamlessly integrate ourselves into the community through humor and honest conversations. The channels we used were specic to the NFT and Movember audience. We wanted the NFT community to get excited about these rare and exclusive tokens and for the Movember community to feel connected to the campaign and conversation. Content launched across MISHKA’s owned social channels; Movembers social, CRM and YouTube channel; and owned agency channels to reach as many people within our organic networks as possible. We also launched a new Discord community to create a destination for people to discuss and their share their NFT purchases and have a platform to open and honestly discuss men’s health issues. Once the tokens were launched, AMAs tookplace on a weekly basis on Discord and Clubhouse to explain the campaign and discuss the importance regular self-exams. Our PR team went to work, reaching out to relevant media outlets in the crypto, art, and mainstream conversations--All to raise awareness around Testicular Cancer and promote the NFT drop.
We were picked up by publications including Entreprenuer, Yahoo! Lifestyle, and HYPEBEAST, realizing over $2M in earned media. Proceeds went toward testicular cancer research. And the price and ownership of all NFTs sold are trackable on the blockchain, with an additional 10% of secondary market sales supporting Movember. There was also a 22% increase in conversation around Movember during Testicular Cancer Awareness month YOY and a 9% increase in conversation about testicularcancer. And 57% of men who purchased NFTs checked on their testicles each month.
We consider these results a success because we set out to help men create a behavior change to live healthier lives. While we can’t literally check who completed a self-exam each month, we do see an intentional action taken to care for and hold onto the value of the precious items in their lives. And each time someone checked on their NFTs they were reminded to also check themselves too.
