Pre Check
Breast Cancer Foundation NZ
Issue 54 | March 2020
Agency
Colenso BBDO
Creative Team
Creative Chairman Nick Worthington Chief Creative Officer Levi Slavin Executive Creative Director Maria Devereux Creative Director Kimberley Ragan Digital Creative Director Matt Barnes Senior Art Director Haylie Craig Senior Copywriter Ellen Fromm
Production Team
Senior Digital Producer Claudio Varoli - Piazza Production Company Assembly Digital Designer Jodie Heron Lead Developer David Arcus Digital Tech Lead Anna Markova Senior Software Developer Fabio Cigliano Sound Design Franklin Road Studios Retoucher Reks Kok Designer Josh Hart-Vrijkotte Editor Luke Urquhart
Other Credits
Media Agency Starcom New Zealand Head of Account Management Angela Watson Business Manager Zoe Scheltema Account Executive Ellie Richards Planner Amy Pollok Client Chief Executive Officer Evangelia Henderson Digital Marketing Manager Kim Barker
Date
October 2019
Background
Unfortunately, 98% of NZ women don’t know the nine symptoms of breast cancer.
Which leaves them vulnerable.
Idea
Pre Check was created: a multisensory training tool that reproduced the feelings of early stage breast cancer through your phone screen.
Pre Check uses haptic technology to create unique vibration sequences that teaches your hands how to look for breast cancer. When combined with audio and visual cues, the experience simulates a virtual self-check. The complex utility was available for free to all women, allowing them to simply feel around their phone screen looking for abnormalities - just as you would your own breast. Personalised reminders changed behaviour by establishing routine self-checks.
Results
Pre Check became the #1 health app and has been seen by more than half of the New Zealand population. It has the potential to prevent 10,000 late-stage diagnoses and the death of 650 NZ women every year.
Our Thoughts
This is one of those apps that looks both obvious and simple and is neither. It’s an astonishing technological achievement, sight, sound and touch all combined to help people feel their way around a 3D breast much as they should their actual breasts.
It’s psychologically as useful as as it is physiologically, getting women to understand that feeling their breasts is both normal and necessary in order to recognize when something is amiss.
Just as an illustration of the extraordinary breadth of the sort of work ad agencies are capable of these days, the creative director behind this, Maria Devereux, also gave us SelfieSTIX (Issue 47) two years ago. From selling dental sticks for dogs to transforming healthcare through self-diagnosis, she clearly understands how we are now in the business of creating experiences.