Research shows that 1 in 250 men will develop testicular cancer. Regular self-examination increases the chances of early detection and treatment, but most men still don’t perform regular self-checks, and even fewer speak about it openly online.

In partnership with the Testicular Cancer Society, we needed a way to break the stigma, get more people talking about self-checks, and help normalize the behavior of reminding men to do them. To do that we had to reach as many people as possible on a very limited budget.

We discovered that, while most men’s balls go unchecked, thousands of people check out the Wall Street Bull’s balls every day, making them, “The most checked balls on earth.” This made the Wall Street Bull’s balls the perfect pair of ambassadors for a quirky and impactful campaign.

We used the Wall Street Bull’s “most checked balls on earth” to raise awareness for testicular cancer by turning social media comments into lifesaving reminders and reaching more people than ever in a light-hearted way. Using text mining and image recognition we tracked every post on social media featuring the famous Wall Street Bull’s balls, and set up a reactive content team to identify a point of engagement in multiple languages. Multiple copies were tested to identify the most suitable content for engagement through generative AI and published as comments to users’ posts in real time, reminding men to check their own balls instead, or for women to remind their male friends and family.

On a limited budget, we saw an opportunity to raise awareness for testicular cancer by leveraging the behavior of posting pics of touching or “checking” the Wall Street Bull’s balls on social media.

In a light-hearted campaign we hijacked the Wall Street Bull’s “most checked balls on earth” on social media to reach people with an important message without using paid media. We targeted every-day Instagram, Facebook and Twitter users, both men and women, specifically users posting pics of the Wall Street Bull’s balls. We commented on every bull’s balls posts with witty reminders for men to check their own – directing them to a quick and easy self-check tutorial.

The unique tone and humor of the campaign helped break the stigma around testicular cancer and self-examination online, directing people to a shareable self-check tutorial and inviting more people into the conversation than ever.

Thousands of images of the Wall Street Bull’s balls appear online every day from across the world. The campaign used text mining and image recognition to detect every post on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter featuring the bull’s balls. A reactive content team then identified a point of engagement in multiple languages. Multiple copies were tested to identify the most suitable content for engagement through generative AI, reminding men to check their own balls instead, or prompting women to remind their male friends and family.

The campaign ran for a month, targeting social media users organically on the platforms, and reaching others through extensive PR, amounting to over 2 million people reached.

We created 25000 unique comments in numerous languages, catered specifically to each relevant post. Each comment directed users to a quick and easy self-examination tutorial to watch or share.

Through a smart use of data and cultural insights the campaign went a long way to breaking the stigma around testicular cancer and talking about self-checks, leveraging social media and PR in a hugely effective way on a very limited budget.

Over the course of a month the campaign reached over 2 million people across 21 countries, resulting in 6 million impressions on social media.

The campaign was further amplified by Major League Baseball player and testicular cancer survivor Conor Joe, and appeared on national T.V. news and radio stations in the U.S.A and numerous news and online publications.

On a very limited budget, the campaign was able to leverage social media and PR to generate $110,000 in earned media with $0 media spend.