Every year, more than five million Germans develop depression. During the pandemic, these numbers surged with suicide attempts among young people tripling, as lockdowns and isolation took their toll. Depression is actually often easy to treat. In Germany however, the average wait for a therapy place now stands at an unbearable 22 weeks. During this timeframe, a severe disease can become life-threatening.

The German Depression League (Deutsche DepressionsLiga e.V.), the only national patient advocacy group, is committed to advocate for the interests of people suffering from depression. We set out to help them end the wait, by calling on German leaders to commit to actions that would result in less waiting and more therapy places.

This urgent cause required more than an awareness campaign – we aimed to actively shape the mental health landscape by directly influencing political decision-makers in charge of health policies. However, to get policymaker’s attention we needed to mobilize the public. As budget was almost non-existent, we had to develop different cost-effective activations across ambient and social platforms.

Our insight: Nobody likes to wait. Whether it’s waiting for the traffic lights to change, the train to arrive or a video to stream, we all know waiting can be annoying. But when you have depression, waiting can be life-threatening. We would bring this message home by simply making the public experience waiting. “22 Week Wait” is a campaign that makes you wait – to end the wait. An idea that can work anywhere people wait - from patient congresses, to celebrity and influencer videos, to social posts to bus stops, train stations and pedestrian crossings across Germany’s capital.

The campaign kicked off on June 4, where a keynote speech at a national patient congress began with an uncomfortable 22 second wait. Influencers and celebrities joined in, making their audiences wait across social channels. Many of them even started interpreting the campaign in their own ways, creating art, songs and videos about the #22WeekWait.

Social posts appeared to be loading with the famous spinning “wheel of death” – soon revealing the campaign message. While outdoors, street graffiti and wall projections at places where people wait – including bus stops, traffics lights and train stations – reached the public across Germany’s capital.

All activations drove to a petition on Change.org, calling on the German government to make specific commitments to end the wait. It was handed over to political decision-makers on World Mental Health Day in October. And the story was shared with news media.