Detect Cancer Earlier marketing campaign: evaluation report 2023/2024

10. Evaluation research

Pre and post campaign evaluation was carried out online by an independent research agency.

Questions were asked of adults aged 40+ in the C2DE social grades. The pre-wave sample size was 547 people; post-wave 565 people. The data was weighted by age/social grade interlocking and by STV viewing habits to ensure that the results were representative of the target audience and consistent between waves.

Fieldwork dates were as follows: Pre wave: 11 – 15 September 2023; Post wave: 17 – 21 October 2023.

Campaign performance against SMART objectives

Among the general C2DE 40+ target audience, four out of five of the campaign SMART objective targets were exceeded, illustrating excellent awareness of the campaign and action being taken as a result of it.

SMART objectives set, and results achieved versus target are provided below.

While the campaign objective to maintain strong agreement that you can improve the chance of living well after cancer by getting possible cancer symptoms checked as early as possible was not met, the proportion who agree or strongly agree was maintained. This statement measures one of a few barriers to DCE actions that the campaign tackles. Although this measure declined, there are a number of results that suggest, despite this, the campaign is still successfully tackling many DCE barriers.

For example, there were significant increases in disagreement for the following statements:

• “I avoid thinking about cancer as I don’t want to imagine what it would be like to get a diagnosis” (now 48% +6 percentage points)
• “I wouldn’t want to find out if I had cancer, because I would be worried about the impact on my family” (now 72% +6 percentage points)
• “I might put off going to my GP practice about possible symptoms of cancer for fear of what they might tell me” (now 74% +9 percentage points).

Further measures

• Three in five (60%) of those spontaneously aware of any advertising or publicity on getting checked early for cancer gave possible campaign mentions when asked to describe what they had seen or heard, and more than one in 10 (13%) gave specific descriptions of the campaign.
• There was good multi-channel recognition: more than half (54%) of the total sample recognised 2+ channels, and almost two fifths (38%) recognised 3+.
• The campaign message was clear and well understood; the main message take-out was the ‘get checked’ message, mentioned by three quarters (74%); and just under two fifths (38%) mentioned symptoms/unusual changes.
• The campaign achieved high levels of engagement: the engagement metric (RUSTIC-M^[5]) was 83%.
• The campaign drove reported action among recognisers, exceeding the target. The most common action remained deciding to contact their GP practice if unusual/persistent changes to health are noticed in future.
• The target for the proportion saying they were very likely to contact their GP practice with possible cancer symptoms was exceeded, suggesting the new campaign endline has been successful.
• The campaign has successfully communicated the key benefits of detecting cancer early: campaign recognisers were more likely to identify all three of the benefits of early detection highlighted in the campaign; and increases were also seen in the post wave.
• The campaign has also successfully increased awareness of three of the cancer symptoms that are featured in the ad (blood in poo / pee (+3pp), unexpected weight loss (+6pp) and new / change in cough for 3+ weeks (+6pp)).