Macmillan revamps brand strategy as it looks to bring ‘more unity’ to its marketing

Macmillan Cancer Support has unveiled its new multi-channel advertising campaign, ‘Whatever cancer throws your way, we’re right there with you’, which coincides with a refreshed brand identity that has been designed to help the charity resonate better with its supporters.

Replacing the previous ‘Life with Cancer’ campaign, the new brand strategy will grow understanding and awareness of the many ways the charity supports people at all the critical stages of their diagnosis, treatment and recovery, and help to ensure Macmillan is relevant to everyone it aims to support.

“At the heart of this new brand strategy is it’s much more than just the visual and verbal identity. It’s very much about how we position ourselves,” Macmillan’s director of brand, Kate Barker, tells Marketing Week.

“It’s very much an evolution rather than a revolution and the key focus of the work overall has been much more about the positioning and the messaging. We’ve simplified it, we have also modernised and freshened it slightly which is in response to understanding our supporters and how we can resonate with them.”

What we’re trying to do more than ever is create a direct link. For example, if we improve brand awareness or understanding or affinity, being able to measure that direct impact on our ultimate goals.

Kate Barker, Macmillan

As part of the campaign, which launches today, Macmillan has reviewed its approach to measurement and brand health tracking. Barker says this means Macmillan is now able to link brand activity directly to key organisation goals.

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“Based on the overall objective of relevance we have identified some long-term shifts that we’re striving to achieve and these can all be measured in our new brand health tracking,” Barker explains.

“But what we’re trying to do more than ever is create a direct link. For example, if we improve awareness or understanding or affinity, being able to measure that direct impact on our ultimate goals, which are about the number of people who can get our support and benefit from our services and the amount of money we can fund raise back into the organisation.”

The TV advert will air this evening on ITV at 9pm during Cold Feet before extending across further TV, video on-demand, cinema, radio, outdoor, YouTube and social.

All above-the-line advertising was developed in partnership with VCCP. Agency Dragon Rouge was responsible for Macmillan’s new brand strategy, which includes a redefined brand purpose: ‘To help everyone with cancer live life as fully as they can’.

Barker concludes: “We want to make sure the overarching campaign message runs through everything we do, across all areas of our marketing and communications. And where we will still continue to have product campaigns what we’re trying to achieve with this is a greater sense of overall unity in our messaging.”