“Breast cancer affects 1 in 19 Malaysian women. And being younger doesn't exclude them from the risk.”

What made this statistic more worrying was the lack of knowledge and awareness of the importance of early detection amongst younger women. The good people at National Cancer Society of Malaysia (NSCM) needed help in encouraging this audience to make breast-self examinations part of their routine.

In conjunction with Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we jumped in to help.

With iPads being all the rage amongst our target audience, we saw an opportunity to put their fingers to better use when on the mobile device. Collaborating with JUICE, a leading lifestyle magazine, and leveraging on their e-magazine (available through their iPad App), we delivered an interactive experience that met our objective.

With the promise of a reward beyond riches as bait, we had eager challengers take on the simple 3-level game. Using their fingers to trail a series of paths which mimicked the motions of a breast-self examination, completion of the maze came with a prize money can’t buy — a means of early detection of breast cancer.

Malaysia is a country of many races and many cultural sensitivities. As such, breasts and breast cancer are topics rarely discussed in the open. This proved to be the greatest hurdle for breast cancer advocates to publically encourage young women to perform breast-self examinations.

The execution of ‘Prize Of A Lifetime’ had to be done tastefully, in a way that didn’t turn off or offend our audience. Through the use of geometric shapes, colour schemes and keeping the game exclusive to mobile to utilise finger gestures, what appeared to be a game interface quickly registered as the simulation of a breast self-examination after successful completion of all levels.

What used to be a topic spoken with much unease, now had a medium that provided a first-hand experience of how remarkably simple it is to perform a breast self-examination. Of its importance. And how it can potentially save lives.

‘Prize Of A Lifetime’ proved to be an overwhelming success, attracting over 17,000 new downloads of the JUICE magazine app, and over 23,000 downloads of the issues that featured it.

While the interactive ad spoke mainly to a local audience, word of ‘Prize of A Lifetime’ unexpectedly won the interest of influential bloggers in digital innovation and technology. Through their sharing and coverage of the new approach to breast–self examination in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, ‘Prize Of A Lifetime’ quickly extended its reach to individuals, cancer support groups and advocates on social media around the world — attracting more shares on more blogs (medical blog included!) and Twitter — and more importantly, their words of advice and encouraging followers and friends to perform regular self-examinations.