Breaking Funding Barriers to Cancer Prevention Communication

Background and context: The Cancer Communiqué was founded in May 2017 and adopted a Strategic Plan 2017-2022 which defined an effective communications strategy to guide much needed cancer prevention communication in Uganda. The immediate challenge identified in commencing the identified communication activities was funding. The leadership team deliberated and agreed to use social media as a cost effective and impactful initial means of reaching out to the public. Aim: To identify and implement unique cancer prevention communication campaigns that drive strong early detection messages utilizing social media as a primary platform. Strategy/Tactics: The communications strategy adopted the following tactics to support an effective approach to reaching the targeted audiences: building strong external partnerships with private entities to provide support for the social media campaigns through mobilizing staff participation in the campaigns to generate a viral atmosphere and also to magnify the impact of the campaigns by utilizing their social media platforms to spread the key messages. Another tactic was building partnerships with private health care service providers to enable provision of free or highly subsidized screening camps. Utilization of mainstream media primarily radio was used in the form of radio interviews and talk shows to generate awareness about the social media campaigns. Leveraging existing cancer awareness platforms and localizing them to suit local market appeal was also key with campaigns such as #PinkOctoberUG, #MovemberUG and #SmearForSmearUG used. Finally, leveraging existing experiential events like sports tournaments to drive key messages. All the above tactics were implemented simultaneously on various platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Program/Policy process: The process included the following steps: ideation of the social media activity and its mechanics including clearly ascertaining relevant target audiences and platforms to be used; identification of budget and key campaign resources required; engagement of potential partners to facilitate execution of the campaigns and finally execution of the campaigns. Outcomes: The outcome was a successful set of social media campaigns that were implemented from September 2017 to January 2018. The campaigns were unique as they communicated cancer prevention messages in ways that spoke to the target audiences and stood out from the information clutter as well as enabling people to participate in fun ways like wearing themed colors as well as lipstick smudges, all in support of spreading awareness about different types of cancer within key cancer awareness months. What was learned: This strategy highlighted the fact that even without sufficient funding, social media is an affordable and powerful platform that can be used to effectively spread cancer awareness messages. Something can be done without funding and much more can be done with sufficient funding.