This Halloween season, Cologuard flips the horror script with Scream (and Scooby Doo’s Shaggy) star Matthew Lillard in its witty new “Screen” :60 spot. Opening like a scary movie and ending with reassurance, the ad drives home a simple message: “No need to scream when you can screen.”
Created with Blue Hour Studios and supported by Burson, the campaign uses humor to reach adults 45 and up (with those 45-50 seeing rising colon cancer rates).
Running through November, the campaign includes short-form videos, educational content, and a landing page — ScreenWithoutScares.com — reminding viewers that early screening saves lives.
Here’s what iSpot’s Creative Assessment platform revealed on actual viewer response to the spot.
The Details:
- The new :60 “Screen!” was a very strong ad vs other prescription pharma ads (past year norms) with one opportunity for improvement in the area of cementing the brand name:
- This creative was exceptionally good at engaging and resonating in a positive way, scoring significantly above the norm on every component metric – and in fact ranking in the 96th percentile or higher in each.
- The characters (Matthew Lillard) delivered an incredibly strong breakthrough (Attention and Likeability), being selected as the Single Best Thing about the ad at more than twice the normative rate for the category. The spot’s unconventional tone elicited emotional responses such as Curiosity, Eerie, and Inappropriate, suggesting the edgy, humorous approach was memorable and unexpected (landing in the 98th percentile on Change).
- Still, the ad informed in an entertaining (100th percentile in Watchability) and highly relatable manner (99th percentile), and was effective across a very broad audience, turning in top decile performance across age/gender (including the younger 21-35’s not typically targeted by your brand). Powerful persuasive abilities were on display, with 56% of viewers reporting positive consideration to outpace category benchmarks by exactly double (+28 pts).
- The ad’s opportunity lay in branding as only 59% successfully recalled Cologuard on an unaided basis (vs a 63% norm). Non-matches were provided by 21% of all viewers, far exceeding the 13% norm with most misattributions mentions of some form of the generic ‘screen.’
- This creative was exceptionally good at engaging and resonating in a positive way, scoring significantly above the norm on every component metric – and in fact ranking in the 96th percentile or higher in each.
- Second-by-second trace results reveal particularly strong engagement among the key viewing segment of those aged 36-49 as well as engagement well within normative range (the shaded area) among both younger and older consumers:
- Viewer sentiment was overwhelmingly positive, with viewer recognition and appreciation of Matthew Lillard’s presence upping the enjoyment factor considerably. Many viewers appreciated the clever play on “scream vs. screen” and the Halloween timing. The surprise twist from scary to medical was both creative and a suspenseful hook.
- A sizable portion of the audience were also positive on how well the ad made a medical issue approachable and ‘less scary’ (as intended).
- The convenience of in-home testing was also mentioned while a limited few expressed concerns about the spot’s length or initial confusion as to what was being advertised. Aversion to the horror genre was not surprisingly noted by some as well.
- Viewer sentiment was overwhelmingly positive, with viewer recognition and appreciation of Matthew Lillard’s presence upping the enjoyment factor considerably. Many viewers appreciated the clever play on “scream vs. screen” and the Halloween timing. The surprise twist from scary to medical was both creative and a suspenseful hook.
Sample comments on “Screen!” :60
“I LOVE THE SCREAM REFERENCE! At first I didn’t get it ‘till I saw Matthew and he’s one of my favorite actors cause he was in Scooby Doo AND FNAF as well as Scream. I also know one of my family members had to do a Cologuard before, so that’s something I know about. That’s a really good ad! I already thought it was doing something different just being suspenseful, but when I saw the actor, it really made a lot of sense!”
Male 21-35
“I don’t like anything scary and it got my attention quickly. It’s a good ad. It’s an important ad because not everyone knows they can do it this way and not the long drawn out way that takes a lot of time and effort and money.”
Female 50+
“I think the advert was clear and visually engaging. It showed the product features in a simple way that made it easy to understand how the screen could be useful.”
Male 36-49
“As I very much enjoyed seeing Shaggy from Scooby Doo as the main character in this commercial (it gave me nostalgic vibes), I think the message behind the commercial is the best part. This commercial will get people thinking about getting themselves checked for colon cancer, all while enjoying ol’ shaggy on screen :)”
Female 21-35
“The music, the curiosity of who was behind that door, and then wow, it was kind of funny, but then it was kind of like oh, that’s easy.”
Female 50+
“Well done. Good cultural reference, good info, good delivery. Made an uninteresting and awkward topic approachable and funny.”
Male 36-49
“I liked it. It kept me focused on what was going on in the ad. Nothing took away from what the ad was about. I felt like I learned something about the product.”
Female 36-49
“I love the Halloween theme for a serious product. Was that really a Scream actor? I need to look that up. Wonderful play on words and circumstances. It was an enjoyable commercial.”
Female 50+
“I love the actor. He’s funny and helps bring a little light to a very serious preventative healthcare issue.”
Male 36-49
“This was very creative and a great play on Scream terminology while being informative. I loved it!!”
Female 21-35
“I thought the ad was excellent and one of the best ads I’ve seen in a while. There was a lot of suspense and then at the end, it was a lot of humor. I was very surprised at this and how good this ad was written.”
Male 50+
- While Cologuard ads over the past year have been quite effective in resonating across age, “Screen!” topped the list across every age group:
- “Screen!” absolutely trounced all other Cologuard ads at driving consumer intent, suggesting serious consideration be given to increased budget and/or media beyond social to take advantage of the spooky season and this level of persuasion (perhaps with a few quick edits to enhance branding such as narration on the end screen).
- This opportunity is further supported by indications of creative wear in-market for many of the Cologuard ads currently on linear.
- “Screen!” absolutely trounced all other Cologuard ads at driving consumer intent, suggesting serious consideration be given to increased budget and/or media beyond social to take advantage of the spooky season and this level of persuasion (perhaps with a few quick edits to enhance branding such as narration on the end screen).
- “Screen!” also delivered performance that outpaced prescription norms by triple digits across ethnicity, underscoring the potential here:
- Emotional profiling reveals how effective “Screen!” was at sparking Curiosity vs other Cologuard ads, all of which employed some level of humor (landing as lightly Inappropriate to some viewers):
Cologuard’s “Screen” :60 ad proves that even serious health messages can connect through creativity, humor, and heart. By blending a nostalgic Halloween vibe with an excellent celebrity casting and a powerful call to action, the spot not only captured attention but inspired real intent to screen, turning fear into empowerment and setting a new benchmark for health awareness advertising.
Schedule a demo to find out how your brand can partner with iSpot to quickly solve both challenges simultaneously, delivering high-performing creative while boosting the effectiveness of planning and in-market execution to achieve—and outperform—campaign objectives.
Creative Agency: Blue Hour Studios