Spotlight: National Cancer Act Commemoration
In 2021, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) commemorated the 50th anniversary of the National Cancer Act of 1971 with stories about individuals across the cancer community—patients, survivors, advocates, researchers, and more—with the goal of showcasing the progress made and humanizing the science.
As lead writer for this campaign, I created the voice of the campaign and drafted not only the majority of content, but also researched individuals to feature, pitched content to executive leadership, and interviewed nearly 80 people featured.
For this work, I obtained a 2022 Viddy Platinum Award, a 2022 National Institutes of Health Director's Award, as well as two client awards for being part of the core commemoration team and advancing awareness of scientific progress.
Landing Page Copy
The campaign needed a landing page that gave a high-level preview of why the commemoration was happening and where to go for more content. Additionally, campaign stories and spotlights were broken up into 15 themes, with each theme requiring succinct introductory copy. This page had to resonate with both a general, layperson audience and a scientific one.
Click the image to view the entire landing page.
Human-Interest Stories
The story of 50 years of progress was told through the work, experiences, and future vision of members of the cancer community. In this particular piece, I pulled out the most compelling parts of this person's interview to craft a story about one advocate's efforts to reach underserved populations, while also including a nod to an NCI-affiliated institution and a brief tieback to the National Cancer Act.
Click the image to read all of Phyllis's story.
Social Media Spotlights
Midway through the campaign, to freshen up how we delivered content, combat potential audience fatigue on social media, and feature an even wider and more diverse group of individuals across the cancer community, I pivoted our strategy to include spotlights—short, 150-word or less blurbs that highlighted a key accomplishment or experience from an individual, while still incorporating elements of their personal story. These were accompanied by an image of the person featured, along with a compelling quote from them.
Click the image to read the Instagram post about Dr. Jim Allison.
Videos
2022 Viddy Award Platinum Winner
Category: Non-Broadcast | Short Form Web Videos < 3 Minutes | 217. Government
Another way the campaign's key messages were conveyed was through a series of videos, which culminated in one featuring First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. I wrote the script for the First Lady, with review and approval from her office at the White House. Since this premiered in December 2021 (at the end of the campaign) and was also used as a way for the White House to restate their commitment to cancer research, it was important that the tone was realistic, honest, and hopeful. Additionally, it helped begin the transition from the campaign message of "Nothing Will Stop Us" to NCI's 2022 ongoing messaging around "Ending Cancer as We Know It."
The full playlist of videos is here.