Queensland is the Sunshine State of Australia and skin cancer capital of the world. Traditional sun safety campaigns are ignored particularly by younger people.

In summer 2023 we released five fake horror movie trailers. Simultaneously these outdoor billboards went live, reinforcing the idea that this movie called Sunshine was real.

BRIEF

Emphasize the gravity of ignoring sun safe behaviours for 18 to 34-year-olds and increase the perceived personal relevancy of protective behaviours.

OBJECTIVES

Encourage our audience to reduce UV exposure and sunburn rates and help reduce the incidence of skin cancer.

Increase those in target audience who:

- agree that sun protection is needed every day in Queensland

- agree campaign was personally relevant to them

-agree campaign made them realise there are things they can do to reduce their risk of skin cancer

-intend to practise more sun safe behaviours more often as a result of seeing the campaign

Queensland, Australia is known for its year-round sunny weather. Its great weather encourages an outdoors lifestyle, which means Queenslanders spend more time in the sun, all year around, than other Australians. Older Queenslanders grew up bombarded with sun safety messaging and, having had run-ins with skin cancer scares themselves, tend to adopt sun safe behaviours. However, the younger generation don’t remember or care about the 5 S’s of sun safety (SLIP on a hat, SLOP on sunscreen, SLAP on a hat, SEEK shade, SLIDE on sunglasses).

The campaign has only been live in market 7 weeks, so the long-term behavioural change will only be able to be measured over the next few years. Already the results have outperformed any previous campaign trying to create sun safe behavior change in the 18-34 year old demographic.

In just 7 weeks we have achieved:

- 371,200 completed views across various platforms including YouTube, Facebook, online video and digital display (Note: 18-34 year olds represent approx 21.52% of Queensland’s 5.5 million total population).

- 94.2% video completion rate on YouTube.

The campaign has attracted significant attention in social media and is a rare campaign that’s already becoming part of culture:

“Where can I watch this movie?” - Peter Burns

“This is completely brilliant. Will share with my teenage kids. Love it.” – Eliza French

“Gold. A great approach to delivering a serious message.” - Tanya Liebrecht