In conjunction with 20th Century Fox’s International digital marketing team and with support from actor Ryan Reynolds, we created “#TouchYourselfTonight”.

Three key relevant facts inspired the idea:

•Deadpool is diagnosed with terminal cancer, but ultimately saved when a procedure triggers a ‘superhuman healing factor,’ which becomes his Super Hero power

•The movie’s red band trailer shows Deadpool smelling his guns following a high energy killing spree, declaring ‘I’m touching myself tonight’

•Deadpool breaks the ‘fourth wall’ and talks directly to the audience

Combined, these hooks became the foundation for a truly relevant cancer awareness campaign targeting both men and women.

The initiative, starring Ryan Reynolds in character as Deadpool, centred around two instructional videos outlining simple self-examination techniques that can help spot the early signs of testicular and breast cancer. The videos were supported by a series of teaser/pre-roll videos, static shareables and a thank you message from Deadpool.

The international campaign ran across several key markets, including the UK, launching on select online channels including:

•20th Century Fox’s Facebook/YouTube pages (20m/1.4m)

•Ryan Reynolds’ Facebook/YouTube/Twitter pages (2.1m/142k/1.6m)

•Official Deadpool Facebook page (5.7m)

The campaign launched two weeks before the movie’s first release on 10 February 2016, and wrapped one week post. Most assets went live the first week to maintain momentum and conversation.

•27 Jan: male teaser video live (to spark conversation among the largest target audience segment)

•28 Jan: main testicular cancer video live

•30 Jan: main breast cancer video live

•5 Feb: World Cancer Day shareables live

•10 Feb: first Deadpool release date

•18 Feb: Deadpool thank you message

•Static social shareables launched throughout

Along with press outreach, the UK further amplified their campaign and its credibility via a partnership with local charity Ball Boys, linking the assets to their website for further information.

The campaign generated over 100m combined organic views online; 191,498 tracked shares* and 27,300 comments*; and trended worldwide on Facebook, Twitter and Reddit. Influential consumer/trade outlets picked up the story worldwide, including Forbes, Entertainment Weekly, MTV, Mashable and AdWeek.

The movie smashed opening box office records in numerous markets, and achieved the biggest-ever box office debut for an R-rated film. Its current global box office earnings exceed a staggering $758m.

#TouchYourselfTonight gave an audience outside of core fans an unexpected introduction to Deadpool and another reason to see the movie. Without paid media support, it prompted global conversation about potentially life-saving advice on a scale that health organisations have long sought to achieve.

And perhaps the ultimate result:

"Just wanted to say thanks deadpool, you actually did help me detect testicular cancer on time! I owe you one big time" – Julio Rosales (Facebook)

Simply Super Hero stuff.