The World Health Organization estimates that 400,000 lives a year could be saved through the early detection and treatment of breast cancer. Yet only women over the age of 40 are offered a mammogram, and despite traditional education and awareness campaigns, 70% of New Zealand women don’t check themselves regularly. Our brief was to change this behaviour and encourage all women over the age of 20 to start a self-checking routine.

There are many reasons why women don’t check their breasts – they don’t know how, they forget, or they feel uncomfortable touching their breasts.

So we created Breast Cream - a simple moisturiser that makes checking your breasts a part of your regular beauty routine. Simply applying it helps you look and feel for any lumps or changes that could be signs of cancer.

Breast Cream launched in October 2014, and is already starting to shift the conversation around breast cancer from awareness to action.

We partnered with New Zealand’s leading natural skincare company to develop the cream, and have stocked it in over 80% of New Zealand’s leading grocery retailers.

Breast Cream has been promoted and reviewed extensively by beauty bloggers and everyday users on beauty forums, scoring an average product rating of 4.9/5. This love for the product has so far helped us reach their extended audience of 1.15 million, and helped normalise a new life-saving behaviour.

This is only the beginning of a long-term behaviour change project. The partnerships we've developed give this idea the scale and means to expand across international markets.

We created Breast Cream - a simple moisturiser that makes checking your breasts a part of your regular beauty routine. Simply applying it helps you look and feel for any lumps or changes that could be signs of cancer.

We launched Breast Cream in October 2014 during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, putting the product on the shelf in 80% of New Zealand’s leading grocery retailers. We supported the launch with PR and targeted influential beauty bloggers. A print campaign helped us reach a broader audience along with promoting the product through NZBCF’s substantial owned online assets.

This is only the beginning of a long-term behaviour change project. The partnerships we’ve developed give this idea the scale and means to expand across international markets.

We’ve sold 75% of our first production run, and Breast Cream is already starting to shift the conversation around breast cancer from awareness to action.

By creating a beauty product an audience that would normally switch off to a traditional breast cancer campaign are actively spreading The New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation’s breast awareness messaging in their own words, and in a way that’s relevant to them.

Breast Cream has been promoted and reviewed extensively by beauty bloggers and by everyday users on beauty forums, scoring an average product rating of 4.9/5. This love for the product has so far helped us reach their extended audience of 1.15 million, and is helping to normalise this new, potentially life-saving behaviour.