When people find out that someone has lung cancer, the first thing they ask is –Was he or she a smoker? The truth is, even non-smokers can develop it. This lack of understanding of the disease has a complication of its own: people with lung cancer feel misunderstood and isolated.
AstraZeneca and DigitasLBi took the initiative to establish an online support group called LVNG WITH LUNG CANCER (LVNG WITH). Unlike patient forums, its objective was to host a lung cancer community based on empathy and connection.
We began with the insight that once you are diagnosed with lung cancer, you become very aware of how you spend the time that you have. So within the LVNG WITH community, we activated GIFTED DAY, a campaign about seeing time differently. During leap year, we all get an extra day. This year, those extra 24 hours became our way to connect people through optimism. After all, who better to help people appreciate and celebrate life than those who know how precious it can be?
Phase 1 – Planning and Conceptualization
1. We spent over 80 hours with close to a 100 patients, caregivers, health care providers and experts to understand lung cancer survivors.
2. We arrived at the idea of how meaningful an extra day of living is.
Phase 2– Casting and Execution
3. We invited 12 actual lung cancer survivors willing to become part of LVNG WITH as ambassadors of the community and shot each of them spending a day with a loved one or doing something they love.
4. We turned clips of their videos into mini gif films and created 24 individually designed posts meant to provoke positive thinking, connection and celebration among the LVNG WITH online community.
Phase 3 – Culmination
5. On February 28, we released one post EVERY HOUR, each time asking people how they'd like to spend an extra day of living.
6. On the extra day, February 29, we released an inspirational online film about a gift that is the extra day. The film shows our survivors living life to the fullest.
AN EXTRA DAY OF LIVING IS A GIFT.
Our goal was to drive awareness of the Gifted Day and Celebrate the lives of our community and in a single day we did that as measured below:
-- 1,158,080 Impressions in 24 hours
-- 444,962 Video Views in 24 hours
-- 38.37% View Through Rate (15% higher than previous video view through rates on our page)
-- Attracted 1,456 new followers an increase of 94% of our total followers in a single day
-- Shared 1,281 times an increase of 541% on our typical posts
-- 807 Comments on our posts
-- 6,696 likes
