We decided to hijack the shelf space, revenue stream and customer base of New Zealand’s largest commodity – dairy.

By creating a product our target market already purchased 2-3 times a week, we could ask them for a routine donation by simply asking them to change milk brands.

We approached premium milk brand Lewis Road Creamery with an idea to repackage their blue top milk as Breast Milk – the cow’s milk that funds the cure, and transform their shelf space into our media platform.

They agreed.

20c of every bottle sold was donated to Breast Cancer Cure, which made Lewis Road Creamery the brand of first choice, increased sales and in turn, donations.

Media idea: Turn Lewis Road Creamery’s milk into a billboard for Breast Cancer Cure and a donation device.

On June 10, Breast Milk hit shelves all over New Zealand, in all upper-socio supermarkets where our audience shopped.

Launched with a PR push, the new provocative design received coverage across national television, social media and global news such as The Daily Mail, Huffington Post and Buzzfeed.

To maintain momentum after the initial burst, celebrities encouraged people to publicly commit to purchasing the product and have fun with the idea on social media with #idrinkbreastmilk. Outdoor encouraged people to make funding a cure part of their everyday routine.

The other key channel we needed to own was cafés – a daily occasion for milk consumption. We partnered with Coffee Supreme cafes to offer Breast Milk alongside the option of soy and trim.

‘Breast Milk’ became the most talked about charitable initiative of 2015 in New Zealand, and met 100% of the donation goal – raise $20,000 in donations without any charitable spend.

The first batch sold out in one week, and in three months we sold 85,458 bottles of Breast Milk.

The campaign generated 4.8 million earned media impressions in New Zealand alone in just 48 hours, with the whole population of NZ being only 4.4m.

Globally, estimated impressions hit around 15 million and social chatter was rampant throughout social platforms and global news sites such as Buzzfeed, MTV, The Daily Mail and Huffington Post.

The only money invested was donated from the agency and totalled $3,655 for social content.

Breast Milk generated a huge increase in brand awareness, which solicited donations beyond this campaign. Looking at the ROMI from this campaign directly, we achieved $5.47 for every agency dollar donated.