Next Project
Nearly 80% of suicides in the UK are men, yet males make up less than half of NHS therapy referrals. 1 in 8 men also admit to suffering from some form of mental health challenge.
Mind’s Christmas campaign is one of their largest for both income and volume of new donors. In 2022, they invited us to create a social acquisition campaign that focused on tackling the stigma of men’s mental health in the UK. Our campaign needed to drive cash donations while simultaneously creating awareness of Mind's vital work in providing life- changing services for the people who need them the most.
We wanted our audiences to understand the severity of the impact of mental health problems on men and how they may be seen as the ‘invisible gender’ of mental health. We also wanted them to think that their donations could make a real, tangible difference to people’s mental health (and the support they can receive from Mind).
With Christmas being a crowded time for all brands trying to reach audiences and with the addition of a winter World Cup in 2022, it became even more important that we cut through the noise while still staying relevant to conversations and situations happening in daily life.
To bring in as many donations as possible, we needed a creative idea that tapped into people’s emotions, showed the severity of the situation, and positioned Mind as the first point for care.
Working with brand ambassadors such as Bradley Wiggins, Clarke Carlisle, and Ben West, as well as current Mind staff, we created a two-part campaign that ran on social media and direct mail throughout December.
The first wave targeted people during key World Cup moments and used the link between the emotions we feel watching football and the emotions people experience when struggling with mental health. The second wave ran over Christmas and was centred around the ‘Silent Nights’ carol. An instrumental version of the song created a hard-hitting video, showing just how damaging it can be for people to keep their feelings to themselves. This was combined with static posts that showed men disappearing into the background as their struggles worsened.
The campaign kicked off with an outstanding start, raising over £50,000 in the first week alone – more than double the amount from the previous year. This early success set a positive tone and fuelled momentum throughout the rest of the campaign. Over the following five weeks, our work brought in over £360,000 in donations. In addition, our average donation total was just under £60 – almost three times as much as the Mind average.
