2022 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Branded Content & Entertainment?

This campaign is relevant to branded content because it communicates with audiences to educate them using a steady stream of content and materials.

Background

Situation: Mental health is a topic that is not understood or handled properly by people around those who struggle with it. Mental issues are not viewed as real illnesses and often get mixed up with normal feelings of sadness which means that those who have mental conditions are often met with meaningless advice, denial, or misunderstanding instead of guidance, support and understanding. Brief: To start a change in the region in how mental illness is viewed and open a healthy dialog around it to educate people who are around those who struggle with mental health and encourage whoever needs therapy to seek it. Objectives: To raise awareness about mental health issues and change society’s attitude towards mental health by fighting the stigma of mental illness. Another objective was to encourage those with mental illnesses to seek professional help and understand that mental illness is a real medical condition.

Describe the creative idea

The Gulf Health Council wanted to make a change in the region in how we view mental illness and open a healthy dialog around it. So we launched a video that showed youth struggling with mental health while their family and friends offer them destructive phrases and advice in the form of medicines with names such as “You’re normal”, “You’re okay”, “you need to get out more” as they simply pile over the afflicted without helping them until the video ends by saying that mental health doesn’t need these things but needs professional help and treatment.

Describe the strategy

The strategy used in the campaign was to show audiences what those who struggle with mental illness need. We wanted to show them that even with the best of intentions, you can give advice that is very harmful to those who suffer from mental illnesses. After we establish that, we educate the masses on what and who can help those who suffer from mental illnesses.

Describe the execution

The video was launched and it went viral as it opened discussions on how society treats the mentally ill and why it is harmful to them. After that the campaign continued with content that reinforces what those who struggle with mental issues really need like understanding, therapy and acceptance. Following that and online test to measure how mentally healthy a person is was launched and it was taken by 169,000 participants. Finally those who took the test and had concerning results were redirected to channels where they can receive help and it led to 6000 people receiving therapy sessions with the help of 21 mental health professionals.

Describe the outcome

The campaign video gained 4.7 million views, 1.3k shares and 2.8k likes. Also 169,000 took the online test designed to measure how mentally healthy a person is. After launching the video the campaign continued through educational social media content and further engaged audiences with an online test to measure how mentally healthy a person is and guide them to getting help when needed. The online test was taken by over 169,000 people and, with the help of 21 participating mental health professionals, managed to generate 6000 online consultations with 1400 of them being youth.