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 targeted these specific user posts. We 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.

Using text mining and image recognition we were able to find several thousands of posts relating to people touching the Wall Street Bull’s most checked balls on earth. Through this process, we were confident to say the bull’s balls are the “The most checked balls on earth.”

We looked at the data of the individual posts to understand users’ reasons for posting pics of the balls, which boiled down to 3 key themes: Career, luck and a tourist “must-do”. Tonally, it was obvious the posts were generally light-hearted, and our campaign was to match that. Using these data backed insights we targeted all social media users posting pics of the Wall Street Bull’s balls, with comments catered to these themes, and specifically to every individual comment, using a light-hearted and humorous tone that would appeal to individuals, capture attention and illicit positive responses.

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 Instagram, Facebook and Twitter users organically on the platforms, and reaching others through extensive PR. We established thousands of data points across the world online every day and were able to reach users directly.

We used data insights to create 25000 unique targeted comments engaging users to watch or share the tutorial.

Through a smart use of data and targeted messaging 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.

Using data analysis, text mining and image recognition, we were able to target several thousands of individual users with over 25000 unique data-backed comments. 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.