Strategy and creative to boost detection of pancreatic cancer for Pancreatic Cancer UK
Pancreatic Cancer UK had landed the big one – the official charity partner of the London Marathon in 2025. This highly coveted and hotly contested opportunity provides an enviable platform for charities to put their work and cause in the national spotlight to drive greater support and better outcomes for their beneficiaries. And things really need to change for people diagnosed with this most destructive form of cancer: pancreatic cancer is the tenth most common and the fifth most deadly. And it’s stubbornly difficult to detect.
We partnered with the charity across four phases of work from the autumn of 2024. Initially, we supported leaders across Pancreatic Cancer UK to develop a campaign strategy to run during spring 2025, when Marathon publicity and attention would be high. We ran workshops that led us to agree an engagement-driven strategy focused on colder audiences to help grow the charity’s base of supporters, without alienating the current one.
From this point, we then supported in further workshops to help define what the first act of engagement should be in the campaign. We looked at Pancreatic Cancer UK’s policy work and saw there was a huge opportunity ahead of the emerging UK national cancer plan to make the case for efforts to bolster earlier detection of the disease through the NHS. Spotting this cancer early can vastly improve the life expectancy of those affected. A letter of intent to which supporters could add their name would help the charity to drive improvements within the existing system – achievable and palpable change, without whipping the beleaguered NHS.
To further aid the campaign’s development, we undertook independent creative testing to understand the audience’s response to some bold conceptual thinking. And we concluded our input into the campaign by producing some creative concepts to help make the critical early signs of pancreatic cancer more memorable and salient. The concept that went through to execution took inspiration from the catchy drumbeats of previous public health efforts like Hands-Face-Space and the FAST campaign for stroke. For Pancreatic Cancer, always remember: Tint, Tums, Burps, Backs and Bums.
Across the four phases of our work with Pancreatic Cancer UK there’s been a bit of everything. Strategy, tactics, consultation, debate, creative development, qualitative audience testing and even a bit of motion graphics. The charity reported great results from their campaigning in the first half of 2025, and great potential for the onward use of assets we helped to create, delivering value beyond the campaign window and into the future.
Claremont has been a valued strategic partner to Pancreatic Cancer UK during a momentous year for our charity. Their strategic thinking, frank advice and excellent facilitation enabled us to plan a hugely successful campaign and to bring stakeholders and audiences along on the journey with us.
Anna Frodsham, Head Of Engagement, Marketing & Comms, Pancreatic Cancer UK