Melanoma Institute’s interactive billboard pulls in the dollars

Melanoma Institute pulls in the dollars
Currently, an Australian dies from melanoma every six hours. That’s a frightening statistic. One that clearly points towards the need for more research to be carried out into discovering a cure.

Melanoma Institute Australia is tackling the disease head on, and is making progress to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer. In order to support this aim, the Institute came up with a very novel approach to raising much-needed funds.

An innovative outdoor campaign was launched to ‘Stop the spread’ of melanoma. At the heart of this campaign was an interactive billboard – one that combined integrated responsive graphics with digital outdoor payment functionality.

The billboard displayed a five minute long animation of a melanoma. This began small and rapidly grew in size to quickly fill the billboard screen. The only way to reduce the size of the growth was to make a A$1.99 payment using contactless payment technology. If enough people made a donation within this period, the melanoma would shrink and die away.

It’s a clever way of bringing to life what is clearly an abstract concept. It’s also great to see such an innovative integration of creative visuals and contactless payment technologies.

But what truly makes this successful as a fundraising initiative is its simplicity.

In an unexpected approach, there are no brand ambassadors on hand; no representatives waiting in the wings behind the billboard to drum up donations. Instead, this campaign placed the decision whether or not to donate firmly in the hands of potential supporters, letting the campaign visuals speak for themselves. The price-point for donations is also just right, pitched at a very accessible level. As a result, the billboard generated plenty of positive social buzz during the campaign period.

It’s highly effective in demonstrating that every dollar makes a difference in the fight against the spread of melanoma. The message is clear and the benefits of supporting the cause are immediately visible.

Interactive billboards are growing in popularity as a means of engaging audiences in thought-provoking ways for good causes. The Melanoma Institute’s visual approach bears strong similarities to La Trobe University’s Dance for Parkinson’s experiential stunt, which provided an emotive experience to highlight the need for further medical research.


Joss Davidge is Director of the Unexpected at BEcause, the award-winning live brand experience agency, dedicated to enhancing Brand Love. Sign up to Joss’ next complimentary brand experience masterclass to learn about the most effective experiential marketing strategies.

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