Partnering to deliver digital unification

Challenge

Breast Cancer Now partnered with manifesto in 2021 to undertake a comprehensive digital unification strategy to align its digital ecosystem with its mission to eradicate breast cancer and improve patient experiences. To address the challenges posed by recent mergers and fragmented online platforms, Breast Cancer Now sought to create a unified digital platform that would enhance prevention and detection, save lives, and improve the quality of life for breast cancer patients at all stages.

Solution

Wide-reaching transformation ambitions 

Breast Cancer Now had broad transformation ambitions, including unifying the technology ecosystem to provide connected experiences, embedding human-centred thinking in processes and user journeys, achieving brand synergy, and strengthening its role within the broader healthcare system. 

The scale of the program undertaken by our digital experience team was extensive and fully embedded in the organisation as a long-term partner. Over a year, the program covered numerous initiatives. We established a critical friendship to support Breast Cancer Now, building the foundations to realise its ambition and bold vision to achieve its vision and mission.

Breast Cancer Now’s vision: By 2050, everyone diagnosed with breast cancer lives and is supported to live well. It set an ambitious 5-year strategy to integrate multiple websites to achieve its vision, while ensuring continued reach and engagement. The presence of separate platforms, including the main website, secure donations site, community forum, and various fundraising sites, needed a more consistent user experience. The initial phases focused on unifying databases, rebranding, and enhancing their digital ecosystem.

We embarked on an ambitious program of work involving collaboration throughout the process with stakeholders both internally and those affected by breast cancer.  Key actions included:

Experience Principles

Conducting a comprehensive discovery phase to inform guiding principles that focus on unifying the user experience and fostering a culture of human-centred thinking.

User-led Thinking & Object-Oriented User Experience (OOUX)

Implementing an OOUX content modelling framework to organise complexity and create connected, holistic user experiences across platforms. 

Technical Solution Architecture

We implemented a hybrid headless model that combines the benefits of headless and traditional CMS-based systems. Our approach provided flexibility and integration with specialist technologies and third-party platforms. 

Data Microservice

Developing a middleware layer using APIs to facilitate two-way data integration between external platforms (website, donation platform, event management) and Breast Cancer Now's CRM system. We laid the foundation for future API-driven initiatives. 

Digital Brand Evolution

Collaborating closely with the Breast Cancer Now team to establish a creative direction for the brand's digital expression. The visual language, typography, colour usage, and motion and interaction design evolved to engage diverse audience groups effectively. 

Strategic Vision & Roadmap

Eight data dashboards are updated in IRT with users’ engagement. They enable the development and optimisation of the strategic plan with new research, new products, and new fundraising initiatives, among other assets.

Impact

This has been an enormous unification strategy undertaking. We are in the early days of implementation. However, the initial results following the launch of the new events multisite have been promising. Breast Cancer Now's flagship fundraising event, Afternoon Tea, experienced a remarkable increase of 53% in sign-ups, representing a 20% increase in income from 2021—exponential growth from one initial unified step. There’s more to come.