Sydney, Australia – Cancer charity organisation Redkite has launched a new awareness campaign, which was built around the insight that family members fight their own emotional, financial, and relationship battles when their child gets cancer.
Redkite is a national charity that helps families, friends, and communities affected by childhood cancer, with mental health, financial and practical support. The campaign, developed in partnership with independent creative agency SLIK, award-winning director Josh Whiteman, and digital marketing agency Agnes Media, aims to demonstrate just how much impact children having cancer can have on the people around them.
Titled ‘Childhood cancer affects everyone’, it centres around a little boy’s family, honing into each member’s personal struggle of coping with finances, ‘holding it together’, and loneliness, amongst others.
Kate Levy, Redkite’s general manager of marketing and communications, shared that when a child is diagnosed with cancer, the focus goes to the child’s ‘medical survival’ and so there is little focus on the ‘family’s survival’, which can have long-term impacts on mental health and wellbeing across the entire family.
“In this campaign, we wanted to say to every mum, dad, diagnosed child, sibling, and grandparent that we see you and we’re here for you. SLIK, Josh, Agnes Media, and all the amazing people who have freely given their expertise for this campaign have beautifully brought to life the everyday struggles that families have in the face of a child’s cancer,” said Levy.
Meanwhile, Alex Schieder, SLIK’s creative director, noted that after reading through comments from affected family members that Redkite had collected over the years, they knew the story was lying right in front of them, and their thoughts and feelings are sad and often shocking but are extremely powerful in helping others understand their experience.
“Our TVC captures those heartfelt moments and shows how every family member is affected by childhood cancer. We then used OOH and digital to focus on each family member’s unique thoughts and struggles to create cut-through and build awareness for Redkite,” said Schieder.
Josh Whiteman, the director of the campaign, commented, “I’m in awe of the incredible work Redkite do and am honoured to be involved in this new campaign. Working with the brilliant creative team at SLIK, our focus from the beginning has been on the simplest expression of how cancer affects children and those around them. Using the words of real Redkite families, we’ve hopefully conveyed the genuine support and sense of hope that Redkite brings.”
The nationwide campaign features TVC and radio, supported by OOH, digital display, and social media managed by Agnes Media.