Breast Cancer is the No.1 killer of women in India (Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)). The biggest reason for this is late detection as women in India do not practice breast self-examination. Even those who are aware of self-examination often don't know what to look for. A major reason for self-examination failure is women being unaware and uncertain of their self-detection capability. This not only makes treatment difficult with a lowered chance of success but also exponentially more expensive than early detection cases. These facts make breast cancer survival rate in India half of that in the west. SBI Life Insurance, one of India's leading life insurance brands, wanted to change the way breast cancer is seen and dealt with in India - both rural and urban. The objective was to promote self-examination so that more women are empowered to take control of their health themselves.

We created the world’s first tactile tool made publicly available for self-detection of breast cancer, called Thanks A Dot that trained women to know what to look for during a self-examination. The tool provides touch-based learning that combines the concept of Braille letters with breast cancer mammography. A new alphabet was created that was made up of 3D shapes mimicking the shape and size of real Stage 1 breast cancer lumps. Research on tactile learning says that finger tips can be trained to increase sensitivity in detecting different textures and shapes. That's why Thanks a Dot uses puzzle solving as a learning mechanism. The user is expected to solve the puzzle that is written using the thanks A dot alphabet by touching and memorizing the shapes.

Statistics say that Breast cancer incidence age in India is 30 years old, down from 50 years old 20 years back (ICMR). Hence our target audience was all women in India starting age 27. The disparity in medical awareness is huge between urban and rural India. To enable adoption across audiences, the tool was made available for free. Different strategies were employed for both urban and rural demographics. A digital first strategy for urban India where media and influencer marketing drove the ordering of the free Thanks A Dot kits from the website was deployed Rural strategy was driven on-ground activations using breast cancer survivors. We got TV coverage from the on-ground activation. Famous cancer survivors whole-heartedly supported the campaign. Millions of earned media was generated to the extent that the Indian Army has placed a request for kits to be provided to thousands of army family members.

The campaign kicked off with a video featuring a breast cancer survivor's story and with a CTA driving viewers to the website for ordering free kits. Social media (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube) was activated through videos of breast cancer survivors and the promotion of the website. We further launched online tutorial videos featuring cancer survivors and oncologists who spoke about the tool and its benefits. Workshops were conducted in SBI Life Insurance offices with over 500 women being taught the usage of the tool. On the rural front, on-ground experiential workshops with breast cancer experts and survivors were conducted. Female village leaders were involved to help promote the kit across villages. Press was involved to help spread the word, driving more traffic to the website.

Timeline: 2 months so far (10 months to go)

Scale: 300 workshops across India, 10000 kits distributed

Collaborated with Indian Armed forces on their special request

Renowned personalities who are also cancer survivors supported the campaign ex. Indian cricketer (cancer survivor) Yuvraj Singh and veteran Indian actress (cancer survivor) Manisha Koirala

1M+ engagement

The campaign videos registered more than 100M+ views

Earned media worth 8.43M INR

Support came from the field of sports, politics and media alike viz. former Australian cricketer Brett Lee, Indian cricketer Shashank Singh, former education minister Ashok Choudhary, and Indian Olympic medalist boxer Mary Kom have raised their support on Twitter too.

The brand conducted workshops and trainings in more than 300 villages. Due to the simplicity and ease of use of the tool, an official request has come in from the Indian Army to bulk-source the kits for the armed force members and their families.