Through our platform for co-creation we developed an integrated campaign comprising four films released:

- In targeted cinemas – a captive audience at a time of quiet reflection

- On UK-wide and Welsh language-specific broadcast TV/BVOD linked with shows recognised as mental health triggers.

- Across social media channels to reach young people where they organically engage.

OOH featured poignant passages from the pieces, targeting areas with strong representation of our priority audiences.

Spotify targeted introspective moments through chill playlists.

The ubiquitous call-to-action tagline ‘If this speaks to you, speak to us’ encouraged the audience to reach out to Mind.

Despite increasing levels of awareness around mental health, many people feel disconnected from the mental health system. They don’t recognise themselves in communications or relate to the voices speaking to them. So, they don’t engage with the support they need.

For leading UK mental health charity, Mind, this disconnect was especially apparent for people from racialised communities, those living in poverty, young people with experience of trauma, and in some regions of the UK. Mind needed to reduce the gap between awareness and action, help people recognise when they may have a problem.

We had to escape any sense of professionals – advertising or healthcare – talking at people and make a genuine connection with the audiences that need it most. Mind’s mission is to not give up until everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets support and respect, so we needed to encourage them to contact the charity and seek support.

There are a number of factors prevent people within the identified groups from taking action:

Fear of vulnerability and exposing themselves to stigma/discrimination; Ability and apathy – that help seems impossible, and nothing has helped before; Denial and unworthiness – that they are not worthy of help/support or telling themselves there is nothing wrong; and distrust in a mental health system that does not represent, speak to, or understand them.

Recognising that we may not be the people to represent our target audiences, we developed a robust creative platform for co-creation.

Partnering with Universal Music, we selected and paired real people who had experience of mental health issues with upcoming artists with the same cultural background. In this collaboration of volunteers, the artists wrote and performed spoken word pieces representing the advisors’ mental health stories.

With a topic as sensitive as mental health being so closely related to people’s sense of identity, any disingenuity would be seen through. By allowing the artists to communicate in ways that were natural to them, we co-created a campaign that was beyond surface-level relatable, giving Mind’s communications a sense of not simply “this is for you”, but “this is you”.

The call-to-action tagline ‘If this speaks to you, speak to us’ tied the campaign together and encouraged the audience to reach out to Mind.

Leading UK mental health charity, Mind, highlighted a disconnect between the mental health system and key audiences including: people from racialised communities; those living in poverty; young people with experience of trauma; and some regions of the UK. In these communities, discussing mental health is generally regarded as taboo or a weakness. Audience-specific insights support this: Black men being 4x more likely to be involuntarily hospitalised and People with adverse childhood experiences being 14x more likely to attempt suicide.

This campaign’s integrated media targeting strategy aligned with the target audience: OOH and cinema in areas (and movies) with high target audience representation; TV/BVOD during shows known to be mental health triggers; social media through channels where the younger audience organically engage; and Spotify targeted chill playlists, commonly listened to by commuters. All executions directed the audience to talk to Mind through the helpline and support website.

Four (to date) hero films featuring performances of the spoken-word pieces along with OOH with poignant passages from the pieces were launched in the UK in two waves – aligning with Mental Health Week and World Mental Health Day

The ‘reflective moment’ space was agreed to be the most effective, so we identified several reflective/introspective mindset moments and trigger moments at which mental health is likely to be at the front of the viewer’s mind.

Cinema was chosen as a time of quiet reflection. UK-wide and Welsh language-specific broadcast TV and BVOD shows were targeted based on their potential to be mental health triggers – with reality TV was identified as a trigger for body image issues.

OOH was displayed across the London transport network, targeting areas with strong priority audience representation, interrupting their daily commute.

The campaign helped Mind to reduce the gap between awareness and action in the target audience. Achieving the key objective of creating an association between mental health & Mind across the target audience, illustrated by 40% increase in enquires to Mind’s services over the course of the campaign.

Standing out against the many other campaigns in Mental Health Week and on World Mental Health Day, the campaign gained UK-wide organic media coverage including the NME, Clash Music magazine, Channel 4 and BBC News.

We saw 4.2 million engagements with 28.3 million impressions with an 88% positive sentiment.

The campaign ignited conversation across social media, with 23,224 posts using #speaktomind and engagement from high profile users such as McLaren F1, Zoe Ball and Stephen Fry.

At the end of the campaign, we found that all groups had an increased understanding of Mind as a charity that offer support for mental health.