To mirror the existing behaviour that people have with spots on their skin, we made subtle changes to spots that are in the public eye every day, in ads for some of the biggest brands. Designed for people to notice- or not.

Our media partners were: The most popular summer beverage, New Zealand Lotteries, the national meteorological service, a summer festival and the biggest out of home media company in the country.

The media was chosen so the spots could react to the UV index and change accordingly, over our campaign at the height of summer.

80% of all cancer diagnoses in New Zealand are for Melanoma. If left untreated it can rapidly spread to other parts of the body. But there’s a very good chance of survival if you catch it early enough.

The problem is, the only symptom is often a new spot or a subtle change to an existing spot, which many people pay no attention to.

And even if they do notice something, there’s little awareness around what to look for, and what actual melanoma symptoms look like.

We created a typeface that consists of only full stops: The Melanoma Typeface. The font was designed with a leading typographer and a dermatologist to accurately represent melanoma, with each weight depicting a different symptom. And just like a real melanoma, it changed in response to UV light.

To mirror the existing behaviour that people have with spots on their skin, we made subtle changes to spots that are in the public eye every day, in ads and on product labels for some of the biggest brands in the country. Designed for people to notice- or not.

Our target audience was all New Zealanders, as melanoma can affect anyone and is directly linked to how much UV exposure a person gets throughout their life. This message is particularly relevant during summer.

That’s why we chose to partner with some of the biggest brands to hijack their ads during summer with our full stops that would hide in plain sight until they began to mutate. By drawing attention to these usually benign spots we prompted people to take a closer look at their own, as well as learn more about what to look for when it comes to skin changes.

We gave our Melanoma Typeface to some of the nation’s biggest brands to use in their summer advertising. At first the spots appeared like normal spots, until exposure to UV light caused them to mutate- just like a real melanoma. The larger they grew, the more details were revealed.

After two weeks we switched to our brand messaging: Don’t let a spot become a full stop, outlining the warning signs for melanoma and reinforcing the importance of regular skin checks.

Our message reached 95% of the population during the most dangerous time for melanoma- summer.

More people than ever before were prompted to book potentially life-saving skin checks.