4.7 million Arab women are hearing and speech impaired. Yet there are no breast cancer awareness campaigns targeting them. Emirates NBD, the UAE’s largest bank that believes in inclusivity, researched and analyzed that signs for ‘cancerous’ and ‘lumps’ didn’t exist in sign language, making breast cancer difficult to talk about in these communities. By creating the missing signs, ‘Life Saving Signs’ gave millions of impaired women a voice to discuss breast cancer for the first time. The campaign achieved significant impact, receiving praise from the Government of the UAE on national media and from influential female personalities on social media.

Despite most organizations launching numerous campaigns highlighting the importance of breast cancer awareness during Pink October, the topic remains a largely taboo subject across the Middle East. As a result of this, many women fail to be open about their symptoms or get routine check-ups, thereby delaying life-saving early diagnosis and treatments.

In this context, it is crucial for breast cancer awareness campaigns to reach more women and help disrupt this social stigma. But for 4.7 million women across the region who are hearing and speech impaired, these messages are even harder to receive. Especially when signs for ‘cancerous’ and ‘lumps’ do not exist across 300 universally used sign languages, each covering 140,000 words.

As the region's largest bank and one that believes in building an inclusive society through its ‘TogetherLimitless’ program, Emirates NBD needed a campaign that spoke to this community. And that meant developing new signs to save lives.

Situation: Pink October is usually marked by a flood of breast cancer awareness campaigns. Most of these go unnoticed and are not impactful, especially for those who are hearing and speech impaired.

Brief: Emirates NBD, being Dubai’s largest banking institution, has always used its CSR initiatives to empower the community at a macro and micro level. So, during Pink October, the brief was to come up with a creative campaign that reached everyone.

Objectives: The ‘TogetherLimitless’ program was at the forefront of the bank’s commitment to creating an inclusive campaign that broke the barriers of disability. We decided to make this the most exclusive campaign ever, speaking in a language that specifically reached 4.7 million impaired women.

We created the world’s first signs for ‘cancerous’ and ‘lumps’, that didn’t otherwise exist across 300 universally used sign languages. We then launched ‘Life Saving Signs’, a breast cancer awareness campaign that shared life-saving reminders to hearing and speech impaired women, educating them on how to self-check. Completely executed in sign language, it was the first-ever silent campaign released on sound-first apps like TikTok and Instagram. Our campaign was heard loud and clear across media outlets and social media as key influencers with significant female followings took to their channels to praise and further spread the campaign’s reach.

In the region, 4.7 million women are hearing or speech impaired. Yet there are no breast cancer awareness campaigns targeting them. We partnered with sign language experts to analyze 300 universally used sign languages, each covering 140,000 words, and found that signs for ‘cancerous’ and ‘lumps’ didn’t exist. In a region where discussing breast cancer is already taboo, the lack of signs made the topic almost impossible to discuss for impaired women. Emirates NBD, the largest banking institution in the UAE, prides itself on inclusivity and through its ‘TogetherLimitless’ program and is committed to building a disability inclusive society. So, when Pink October arrived, while most corporates launched numerous campaigns that excluded this community, Emirates NBD launched one that talked to those who couldn’t. By creating the first-ever life-saving signs that didn’t otherwise exist in sign language.

It was the first-ever silent campaign that was released across sound-first apps – completely breaking the format and catching everyone’s attention.

The ‘Life Saving Signs’ campaign was launched organically on Emirates NBD’s Instagram and

TikTok accounts at the beginning of Breast Cancer Awareness month – 1st October 2023. It went viral overnight with the most popular influencers reposting it on their channels, and national media outlets covering the campaign within just 24 hours of its release.

With a budget of only US$ 45,000, the campaign gained over 7.3 million social media impressions, a 100% increase in positive brand association and most importantly a huge jump of 47% in mammogram checks with the community.

Furthermore, the life-saving signs were directly taken to special-needs schools across the region, directly speaking to the community in order to educate and empower them to self-check.

The campaign went viral overnight with the most popular influencers reposting it on their channels, and national media outlets covering the campaign within just 24 hours of its release. It resulted in significant change in behavior. Prior to the campaign 40% of women in the UAE had never had a mammogram screening; yet, following its launch, there was a significant increase of mammograms at affiliated clinics. As such, it became evident that our message had reached millions of women across the region, disrupting social stigmas and encouraging them to both self-check and visit their clinics. This shows that the campaign succeeded in highlighting Emirates NBD as a brand that believes in building an inclusive community, in line with our ‘TogetherLimitless’ program. Especially as ‘Life Saving Signs’ inspired women to tag other brands to join the conversation. Overall, the campaign achieved maximum success on a very limited budget as compared to other campaigns.

Impressions: +7.3m

Positive brand sentiment: +100%

Increase in mammogram check-ups within the community: +47%

Emirates NBD, being the region's largest banking institution, has always used its CSR initiatives to empower the community at a macro and micro level. The bank stays committed to building an inclusive society through its ‘TogetherLimitless’ program. So, when breast cancer awareness month was around the corner, the bank was clear in its stand of creating an inclusive campaign, made for those isolated by disability.