Bowel cancer is the second most common cause of cancer deaths in Australia. Around 80 Australians die from the disease every week. Bowel cancer screening is the best way of detecting bowel cancer early, even before symptoms appear.

The National Bowel Cancer Screening Program provides free screening for bowel cancer to eligible Australians. Currently, men and women aged 50, 55, 60, 65, 70 and 74 receive a screening kit in the mail. Over the next five years, the program is expanding so that by 2020 Australians aged 50-74 will receive a kit every two years.

The Australian Government’s Department of Health engaged Etcom reach out to culturally and linguistically diverse audiences to raise their awareness about cancer screening, the free screening kit and how to use it. Etcom’s strategy included both advertising and community outreach, using community influencers. Etcom translated all advertising materials, recruited community opinion leaders, engaged in an outreach campaign to reach general practitioners in highly diverse suburbs and managed the publicity information campaign.