The Challenge

Lung cancer is the UK's biggest cancer killer. Catch it early and the outcomes are transformed. The South East London Lung Cancer Screening Programme was set up to do exactly that, inviting eligible people aged 55 to 74 with a history of smoking for a quick, potentially life-saving check.

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When the programme launched in 2022, awareness was low and uptake sat at around 35%. The barriers were well documented: deprivation, smoking stigma, fatalistic attitudes to lung cancer, low trust in health services and the everyday pressures of life in one of the UK's most diverse urban communities.

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The brief was not to run an awareness campaign. It was to drive real behaviour change, at scale, across a population that had every reason not to engage.

Our Approach

We started where all good media planning starts: with the audience. Using Experian Mosaic data, focus groups, booking call-log analysis, social listening and published inequalities research, we built six behavioural personas reflecting the real barriers preventing people from coming forward. Not demographics. Actual human attitudes, habits and motivations.

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The creative strategy followed the evidence. Local research was clear: this population wanted a direct message about lung cancer itself, not a softer health check narrative. The campaign line, Don't Be Missed, was designed to cut through. It asked people to think about what and who matters most to them.

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Media planning was built on postcode-level data covering media consumption and purchasing habits. We placed messages where they were most likely to be seen, trusted and acted on. The campaign ran always-on across digital, out-of-home and TV, supported by targeted community outreach across 30+ events, GP surgeries and voluntary sector organisations.

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Retargeting ensured that people previously exposed to the campaign received follow-up messaging at the right moment. Creative was reviewed and optimised monthly based on performance data. Nothing set and forgotten.