Movember has firmly established November as the month of the moustache; recruiting Mo Bros and Mo Sisters to raise awareness and funds for male mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer. In 2019, the charity’s TV activity drove mass reach and resulted in significant growth for the campaign.
In 2020 the charity wanted to return to TV with a simple but daunting task: to recruit even more Mo Bros YoY and more donations, on a similar budget to the previous year. This was even more challenging given the devastating financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainty that came with it.
Despite the uncertainty, one thing was clear – the prominent shadow cast by Covid-19 had also spotlighted the importance of looking after your mental and physical health. So, this wasn’t just about reaching potential fundraisers – we needed to create a deeper connection with the British public and make sure the meaning behind the moustache was clear.
The ambitious brief needed something bigger than spot airtime to deliver a message at scale that resonated with Movember’s predominantly male audience. It needed a deep, integrated partnership with the right platforms, channels and credible voices.
With over 10 dedicated sports channels reaching 32% of males in a month, Sky Sports was the natural home for Movember. Combined with the significant increase in the demand for live sport once the Premier League returned, there was a real opportunity to rally mass participation.
Our collaboration set out to create meaningful content by sourcing sporting legends and pundits with a genuine interest and history in raising awareness of men’s health. Collaborating closely with Sky Sports and Sky News editorial Heads, we created further opportunities to authentically integrate the Movember brand into Sky’s programming.
As lockdown continued, we needed to crank the volume of the message louder than ever before. We focused the bulk of the partnership spot media budget into October (a crucial window for registrations) followed by editorial support throughout November across Sky Sports and Sky News.
We had to Mo our own way. 2020 saw the return of Movember’s ‘Whatever you grow will save a bro’ rallying cry to the moustache-growing faithful and an opportunity for individuals to ‘Move for Movember’, but there was another new way to get involved this time with the ‘Mo your own way’ initiative. And Mo our own way we did. Faced with the unique challenge of a global pandemic, we overcame filming hurdles and disrupted programming through a huge collaborative effort, agility and creativity.
We created 3 x bespoke Sky Sports Presents Intros, preceding Movember’s own 30” TVC creative under tighter restrictions than ever before. We filmed talent Tom White, Will Greenwood and Johnny Nelson at home and on set, encouraging viewers to get involved – ‘it might just be the most important Mo they ever grow’. The 10” face-to-camera intros and 30” TVC aired on linear TV as well as retargeting on Sky Sports’ digital platforms so people could easily click and sign up to the fundraiser. The creative also played out prior to snackable content like Premier League clips on YouTube and a bespoke native article on Skysports.com.
Our editorial integration turned a production challenge into a unique opportunity for Movember. With football magazine show Soccer AM unable to bring in a live audience for the show’s Soccer Pro-Am segment, Fenners and the gang needed to pivot quickly to another format that was covid regulation friendly. So, Soccer AM Mo-Am was born – a 12-15 minute video-call slot each Saturday in November with sporting talent like Tony Bellew, Josh Warrington, Rak Su and David Seaman to answer football questions, secure penalty opps and win money for Movember. The Mo-Am segment was simulcast live across Sky One, Sky Sports Football and Sky Sports Premier League, and played across Soccer AM’s Facebook, Twitter and YT platforms. Other areas of Sky pledged even more support:
- Sky News covered interviews with Movember Chief Executive and The Vamps who were fundraising for “Move for Movember” with a cycling challenge.
- Sky Sports News’ Tom White regularly appeared showcasing his Mo and wearing the Movember badge, as did Will Greenwood and Johnny Nelson in Sky Sports boxing coverage.
- Football Daily supported Movember on social media with 8 Instagram stories highlighting the campaign and featuring our ‘Tash watch’. Joe Thomlinson also posted 15 story updates on his personal Instagram account about his Movember experience.
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