Posted: November 21st, 2014

project melanoma in the Netherlands.

project melanoma in the Netherlands.

Questions for Stichting Melanoma Quest Project
Melanoma Foundation
?    Who are the national and international partners of the foundation? How do you work together? National: KWF, Leven met Kanker, hospitals, pharmaceuticals.
?    Do you work with ambassadors such as celebrities? No
?    Do you have a network of volunteers to work with? What do they do? Is it important to get more people involved? Yes, we have a big network of volunteers (around …). They are in the board, give information by phone, mail, forum or at events, write for our magazine Melanoom Nieuws and are involved with our campaigns. It is very important to get more people involved, so we can do more for our patients. Our goal is to motivate as many people as possible to join our foundation and help us as a volunteer.
?    Have you ever worked with commercial partners such as cosmetic or sunscreen brands? Yes, we did. Sunbrands like Eucerin and La Roche Poche.
?    Have you worked with schools before? No
?    What are you doing about creating a stronger awareness of the foundation as a ‘brand’, like many other foundations for other diseases? We launched a successful videoclip this summer (The Cream Team) and launched a even more successful awareness video the year before (Dear 16 year old me).
?    Why do you think people are less informed/ involved with skin cancer and more about (for example) breast cancer? Most people associate skin cancer with an ‚old people disease’ that isn’t fatal. The majority doesn’t know that sunburn during childhood already doubles your chances of getting melanoma. They don’t know the consequences of having skin cancer or melanoma. They think it is harmless. Nowadays it’s cool to have a nice tan, so they don’t think about protecting themselves.

Melanoma facts
?    How do you explain the increase of melanoma cases? Has awareness decreased? Are there other causes, such as climate change? People started traveling a lot more 20 years ago (also because of economic changes). They had no idea of dangers side effects of the sun.
?    Is the increase of the number of cases the result of more people checking for melanoma, or a real increase of the disease? It is a real increase of the disease unfortunately.
?    If melanoma appears with a delay of many years, the current rates are the result of poor sun behavious 10-15 years ago. Is the behaviour better now thann 10-15 years ago? Awareness just started a few years ago. It is a behavior we want to change, just like asbestos cancer 20 years ago. Today nobody works with asbestos anymore without consulting a specialized company of use protective clothes when handling it. We hope that in 10 years people will enjoy the sun, but naturally protect themselves from getting a sunburn.
?    How influential are sunbeds, compared to exposure to the sun? We tell people not to use tanning beds (70% increase of getting melanoma). Exposure to the sun is healthy as long as you don’t get burned.
?    As melanomas are caused by DNA damage resulting from exposure to ultraviolet light from the sun, should we encourage people to take the DNA test and educate them more on this aspect? No

Goals for the Quest project
?    Could you be more specific about the goals? What exactly would you like to achieve as a next step in your process of reducing the number of melanoma cases in Holland? Awareness; we want everybody to know about the danger of melanoma. We want them to know how you can prevent yourself from getting it and how you can check your skin to make sure your in time at the doctors place.
?    Is there a particular type of melanoma you wish to feature? All types
?    Where do you think the emphasis should lie: on educating people about melanoma or on changing behaviour/habits? Changing behaviour and habits by educating people about melanoma.
?    Could you describe the ‘behaviour change’ you would like to see? Perhaps even the ‘ideal sun behaviour’? When people go out, into the sun, it’s is normal to protect themselves by wearing a hat, protecting their skin (with clothes and/or suncream) or wear sunglasses.
?    What is more important to change; more sensible sun behaviour, or checking your skin  regularly? More sensible sun behaviour, because this can reduce the number of melanoma patients.

Research and insights about the target group
?    Did you do any research amongst the target audience and could you share some of the main insights with us? As a foundation we haven’t done any research yet.
?    What do you see as the key to changing the ‘sun behaviour’ of young people? What is your own ‘theory’ about this? Common sense; don’t use ‚the finger’ too much; enjoy the sun but protect your skin.
?    What makes you think that the increase in melanoma is due to a lack of awareness? And what do you think (young) people need to be aware of, as a priority? People just didn’t know about the danger of the UV light, so there was no awareness 20 years ago.
?    Could it be that there is a high level of awareness, without it leading to a change of behaviour? People, especially young people often think that this won’t happen to them.
?    You say that putting on sunscreen is seen as ‘not cool’. Does this view come from research? What makes it so uncool? We think young people like to have a nice tan. They don’t protect themselves because they think suncream blocks the sun en they will stay ‘white’
?    Have you tried developing a more cool sunscreen for the ’16 year olds’ together with a sunscreen brand? No

Previous campaigns and communications
?    What is your general communication strategy at the moment? What do you focus on and which tools do you use? What do you see as the ‘gaps’ in your communications? What kind of tools would you like to develop or expand? Our communication strategy is about prevention, focus on young people between the age of 12 – 26 years. We used (music)video’s, social media and the press.
?    Why is the website in Dutch only, with so many non-speaking people in Holland? That is our main language. We don’t have the capacity yet to inform people in more languages.
?    How do you measure the results of your campaigns? What effects did the previous two campaigns have? Not only in terms of media coverage, but also about awareness of the risks, changes in sun behaviour, use of sun screen, etc. Besides media coverage, we did not measure, but we hear and see that people who are informed about the risk, they protect themselves even better.
?    What do you see as the main factors for the success or failure of the previous campaigns? Factors of succes of the video from 2013 are personal stories, shocking information, emotional. From 2014 are the succes factors: we worked together with a famous uses a dancer, positive energy, used street music, no finger pointing, fun factor. Failor: launching the video beginning of summer (should have been beginning of spring)
?    What do you think worked in previous campaigns? Is it Fear? Nostalgia? Emotion? Sadness? Honest emotion.
?    The Cream Team was released in the Summer? Is that not too late? Yes, is was too late.
?    Did you see a different response to your campaign message from different groups such as parents and children? With ‚Dear 16 year old me’ the response was very big from both groups. With „The Cream Team’ the response came mainly from the younger people.
?    Are you still using the Regional Days program? ??

Target audience
?    There are many audiences involved, such as parents, children, and people in a rather broad age range. Which audience do you think should be the priority and why? How would you describe this audience? Young people between 12- 26 years old. They take care of themselves (no more influence of their parents), feel no responsibility, party/travel a lot. If you want to change behavior you should start educating the very young kids.
?    Have you taken into account sub-cultures and minorities in Holland?

Campaign limitations
?    Can you give an indication of an annual communication budget as a context for the feasibility of strategies? Euro 5.000 to 10.000
?    Are there any legal restrictions to take into account? About claims or messages? Not that we know

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