Social Value
Capgemini Invent with NHS England – Partnering with trusted consumer brands to deliver vital cancer awareness messages at private moments when people are naturally thinking about their body to help increase earlier diagnosis of cancer. These potentially life-saving prompts encourage people to be more body aware, check themselves regularly and contact their GP practice if something doesn’t feel right. The vital awareness messages have been seen on product labels and packaging that are used in these private moments an estimated 57 million times.
The NHS has an ambition to increase the proportion of cancers detected at an early stage (stages one and two) to 75% by 2028, from around 50% in 2018. Earlier diagnosis of cancer makes it more treatable and can save lives. It may also allow for less invasive treatment options, potentially reducing care costs and improving quality of life for patients and survivors.
To increase the proportion of cancers diagnosed at stages one and two, NHS research showed that, in addition to interventions such as national screening programmes and public awareness campaigns, it needed to encourage people to become more familiar with their own bodies and to know what is ‘normal’ for them. This enables people to spot changes earlier and seek advice from a health professional.
To increase body awareness among adults and normalise the practice of routinely checking your body, NHS England worked with 23red, part of Capgemini Invent, to create the Be Body Aware campaign.
Be Body Aware allowed the NHS to move into new channels and create moments of connection at times when people are naturally thinking about their body, such as when they’re getting dressed or in the bathroom. This was achieved through creating partnerships with trusted brands whose products or environments are used in these private moments every day.
The first brand the team worked with was Morrisons, which, starting in August 2023, added messages from the NHS to the care labels of its own-brand boxer shorts to check for signs of testicular cancer, and to bras to check for symptoms of breast cancer.
Since then, the NHS has formed partnerships with Asda, which has messages to check for signs of mouth cancer on its own-label toothpaste and mouthwash, and Tesco, which added abdominal and urological change messages on its own-brand toilet roll and body awareness messages on men’s underwear. Other partners include BETTER, a social enterprise that runs gyms, often in council-owned leisure centres, which has put up messaging in its changing rooms, and P-Wave, which has added blood-in-pee messaging to urinal mats in hospitality venues.
As a result of the campaign, vital cancer awareness messages have been seen an estimated 57 million times on labels and packaging, providing a potentially life-saving prompt at moments when people are most body aware. The initial partnership with Morrisons also generated more than 180 items of news published by outlets including the BBC, The Sun and Daily Telegraph, which together achieved an estimated 475 million views.
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