It’s Movember. Time to grow your mo. If you have no clue what this is about: November is the month to grow your mustache (mo is slang for mustache) to help raise awareness for prostate cancer.
Movember, a blend of November and mo, is a worldwide movement started by two Australian guys in 2004. To help raise money for men’s health issues. And prostate cancer surely is one of them. About 1 man in 7 is diagnosed with it. The Movember Foundation has raised since 2004 a whopping $ 700 million. That is impressive. It has donated for example $ 44 million to the Prostate Cancer Foundation for research that will lead to novel tools to diagnose prostate cancer earlier and to generate precision treatment strategies. There is criticism as well. For example, that growing mustache is concealing the actual issue (comparable to the ALS ice bucket challenge). The Movember Foundation is aware of this and has started a second campaign next to the “grow your mo”: take the move challenge.
What Movember shows – and actually what companies can learn from it -is that having a great story, working for a good cause, building a strong brand (not just a fundraiser, but a foundation for men’s health), designing a creative campaign, inspiring a social movement will lead to great success. Movember is number 55 on the top 100 NGO’s in the world.
About the author
Hans Buskes is a business consultant, marketing communications manager and mind mapper. He’s the author of several mind map books and mind map blogger on Mastermindmaps.
