Prostate cancer is killing 1 man per hour in the UK, yet general awareness regarding the disease is low. The Prostate Cancer Research Foundation (PCRF) aims to fund the best independent worldwide research and share latest knowledge. To do this the charity needs funding, relying entirely on donations. Our challenge was to raise awareness of prostate cancer in the UK, encourage donations to PCRF and increase their customer database. This was a challenge in itself but all this was to be done with no budget.

Raise 'mainstream' awareness of the disease, donor recruitment and database prospecting.

An integrated campaign was developed, bringing Monkhouse back from the dead,to talk about losing his battle with prostate cancer.Experience worked with TCA to develop a campaign centred around a 40" film made using archive footage/state of the art techniques.The film was the focus of a major PR campaign, achieving widespread broadcast exposure. We persuaded many high profile media owners on board, running the film in cinemas and the print ad on posters,as well as seeding the film virally, which drove traffic to a dedicated microsite to enable people to view the film/donate.

To date, the campaign has generated c. £3 million worth of media exposure free of charge, generated over 170,000 hits to the microsite in the first two days alone, doubled the charity's database, secured significant donations inc. regular giving and created significant new interest in and support for the charity.

As John Naish put it in The Times' coverage of the campaign "Men don't like tackling health head on, so the trick is to conceal useful bits of information in something fun and fruity". Laughter was used as a tool to get passed any embarrassment men may feel about prostate cancer.