This campaign highlights the fact that: one in three persons get cancer. But everyone suffers. Instead of just collecting donations, this campaign sought to sell Swedish Cancer Society’s own New Year’s Lanterns in benefit of research. A beautiful and personal alternative to fireworks. In cinemas, TV and online we told the story of a family’s struggle with cancer from one New Year’s to the next. A Swedish version of the New Year’s Eve song “Auld Lang Syne” was written exclusively for the film by one of Sweden’s most loved sing & songwriter, Anna Ternheim. Every time the song played on Spotify or similar services, money went to cancer research. The song reached Spotify’s top 5 viral tracks and was picked up by radio stations.

People were encouraged to share the moment they lit their New year’s lanterns on #togetheragainstcancer and it became a powerful manifestation in support of the cause.

The core and the central execution of the idea was the 4 min long film. The film was shown online and on cinema, and there were also cutdown versions of the film that aired on TV and online to allow efficient media buying.

The song was launched and spread on Spotify and an important part of the implementation was PR and the pitch of the song and the campaign to media. The chosen songwriter and artist Anna Ternheim was optimal for the project and we cooperated to get the song spread to different media and in different channels leading to that we could reach out to new groups of donators. The campaign period was Nov 20th-Dec 15th.

Except from overdelivering on the business goals we have managed to engage new target groups and thereby change the perception of the Swedish Cancer Society in line with the strategy.

Overall the campaign hit all targets set. The 40 000 lanterns were all sold out, the traffic to the website increased with 182% and with 9% compared to last year. One of the most important targets was to reach new donators and that target was exceeded by 47%, which was all time high for the Swedish Cancer Society.

The campaign managed to engage new target groups and donators - not only by donating but also by sharing the campaign, the message, the song, the films, and pictures of lighting the lanterns on social media.