Marit Sophie Egge: Exploring the success of Norway’s Pink Ribbon Campaign

Earlier in 2025, the Pink Ribbon Campaign (Rosa Sløyfe) won the Norwegian Fundraising Association’s Campaign of the Year for the second year running. For this month’s special focus, campaign manager Marit Sophie Egge shares insights into why, in its 26^th year, it’s still so successful at raising awareness and funds.

A collaboration between the Norwegian Cancer Society and the Breast Cancer Society, the Pink Ribbon Campaign has run annually each October since 1999 to show support with those affected by breast cancer, increase awareness, and raise money for research that could lead to better treatment, longer survival and increased quality of life for everyone who develops it. The most common form of cancer among women, 600 in Norway die from the disease every year – and of course, men can get it too.

To meet these objectives, the core target group for the information campaign is women aged 35+, while for the donor campaign, it’s the country’s entire population, which is just 5.5m people.

Yet from this relatively small audience, millions are raised every year, with 2024 setting a new fundraising record.

The 2024 campaign aimed to raise NOK 50 million (just over €43m); sell 160,000 ribbons – a symbol of support for everyone affected by breast cancer; maintain the campaign’s high level of awareness and knowledge of what the ribbon symbolizes; and achieve 800 media reports during the campaign period.

In fact, it beat the target to raise NOK 67 million (€58m): an increase of NOK 17.3 million from the previous year. The campaign saw 200,000 ribbons purchased, exceeding the target and selling out for the first time in the campaign’s history, and the post campaign survey also showed that it maintained its high level of awareness at 95%, while of those who had heard about the campaign, 96% knew what the ribbon symbolizes.

Participants in the Pink Ribbon Run in Bergen

The not-so-secret secrets of the Pink Ribbon Campaign’s success

So with such a long-running campaign, what’s behind its continued success – and last year’s incredible results?

Marit Sophie Egge, campaign manager since 2005, shares her thoughts:

The Pink Ribbon Campaign has grown from year to year, both in terms of attention and income, and particularly in recent years. There are probably several reasons why we succeed in continually engaging people.

A cause that impacts many

First is the cause itself. Breast cancer affects many. It is a disease that affects one in ten women during their lifetime, but it is not only the woman who gets it who is affected. So are her partner, family, friends and colleagues. When someone you love is affected by an illness, you want to contribute and get involved.

A symbol that people recognize – and exclusive rights
The second thing is the campaign symbol: the Pink Ribbon. It has become very well-known and a symbol that people want to wear to show their support for everyone affected by breast cancer. When Pink Ribbon was first organized in Norway, this symbol was unknown, but over the years it has become well-recognized. It probably also helps that the Pink Ribbon is an international symbol for the breast cancer cause.

Because awareness of this symbol is so high, since 2014 we have had a well-known Norwegian designer create their version of the ribbon. This gives people a reason to buy a new one every year. Last year’s Pink Ribbon was particularly popular, and for the first time “The Ribbon of the Year” sold out.

In addition, we have registered the logo and the word mark “Rosa sløyfe”, which gives us the exclusive right to use the Pink Ribbon symbol in Norway, whereas in many other countries there are several competing ribbons. No one can sell Pink Ribbon products in Norway without entering a collaboration with us. The Breast Cancer Society also has local associations all over the country that participate in the campaign every year, and which are most important as information providers and for giving a face to the cause.

I also think it’s important that Pink Ribbon is a campaign held for one month a year rather than being always-on. We limit campaign activities to October as much as possible, and that way we can create engagement among those who contribute and participate every year.

Working with commercial partners
The third thing is the collaboration with commercial partners. Before I took over as campaign manager, I worked as a project manager for fundraising from the business community at the Norwegian Cancer Society. I saw the potential in the Pink Ribbon concept to get the business community involved and support the campaign. Today, 70% of the income comes from activities carried out by the business community. We mainly collaborate with retail, which means that we reach out with the campaign and our symbol in approximately 2,000 stores across the country.

Cross-channel awareness raising
The fourth thing I must mention is our information work. The Pink Ribbon campaign in Norway is 50/50 information and fundraising. Therefore, our information work is just as important as raising money. Through our collaboration with the business community, we gain much wider reach through their customer magazines, websites and social media, in addition to paid communication platforms. We have our own channels, but we can multiply these tenfold with so many good partners. We also work purposefully to sell stories to editorial media. Important for us in all our information work is that we use real people, women (and a few men) who have themselves been affected and who tell their experiences of being affected.

A solid strategy
To succeed with a campaign, it is important to lay stone upon stone. The Pink Ribbon Campaign today is the result of systematic work over more than 20 years. Our mantra is to do more of and further develop what works and less of what doesn’t. The activities we do in the campaign should create awareness, spread information or raise money. Preferably all three.

Examples of activities we do in the campaign that have proven successful:

We travel around the country and visit the largest places in Norway with a travelling stand: a pink trailer staffed by members of the Breast Cancer Society. They meet people face to face to talk about breast cancer, prevention and early detection and sell the campaign symbol. This is an important information activity as a counterbalance to the rest of the information activities in the campaign, which are mainly digital.

We organize a Pink Ribbon run in six cities and help local organizers with runs in smaller places. In 2024, we had a record number of participants, a total of more than 26,000 people.

We have had clear goals for the campaign and have been true to them. We have also dared to stand in the repetitive rather than throw ourselves around trying to come up with overly creative ideas, but we have nevertheless tried to follow trends and add something new to the campaign that makes it constantly relevant. We have a campaign team with dedicated employees who each have their own areas of responsibility such as a senior communications manager, a project employee responsible for press work, a project employee responsible for marketing work, a project employee responsible for logistics, and a group responsible for cooperation with the business community.

We also measure the effect of everything we do and adjust and adapt measures according to these measurements. It is of course important to communicate to donors how the funds raised are used, and as we use the funds raised for breast cancer research, sharing updates about this is important in our information work.

So in essence, there aren’t any revolutionary, new key factors that make this fundraising campaign so successful. The secret to its success is simply good work over a long period of time!

Marit Sophie Egge

About Marit Sophie Egge

Marit Sophie Egge has led the Pink Ribbon Campaign in Norway since 2005. Under her leadership, the campaign has grown significantly each year, both in scope and funds raised, into one of the largest and most well-known in Norway. To date, it has raised more than 500 million NOK for the breast cancer cause, and was awarded “Campaign of the Year” in both 2023 and 2024, while Marit Sophie was awarded “Fundraiser of the Year” in 2022. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Bergen and a master’s degree in management and leadership from Oslo Metropolitan University. She has extensive experience leading various fundraising campaigns, including the annual TV fundraising campaign and the Norwegian Cancer Society’s annual fundraising campaign.