May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a month devoted to raising awareness about mental health, providing resources, support and education, and advocating for reform in the way that mental health is treated across the U.S. This year, we partnered with the Mental Health Coalition - a group of some of the most passionate and influential advocates and organizations in the field, founded by Kenneth Cole - to continue their efforts towards destigmatizing mental illness through emotional regulation. Our goals included:
1. Create a trending audio challenge across social channels to destigmatize mental health
2. Increase awareness about the importance of identifying your emotions and increase access to helpful resources, strategies and tactics to emotional regulation
Campaign
We launched a social media campaign across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok that invited people to participate using a custom audio we helped script for MHC, along with a video template that people could use to replicate the trend and share it using the hashtag #RevealHowYouFeel. Ignited by influencers’ use of the custom audio, the campaign began trending with celebrities, creators and everyday users sharing their authentic selves with imagery that acknowledged the moments when they needed emotional support. We were inspired by existing trends and trending audio on TikTok, where multiple generations are vocal about their mental health.
The words in the audio instructed participants to show moments where they were truly happy, followed by times where they looked happy but were actually struggling. The second prompt was the key to getting people to first identify and then reveal more complicated emotions like anxiety, depression, loneliness and anger.
In conjunction with the organic campaign, we also executed a paid social campaign targeting young people ages 18-24 with a mix of educational content created by the Code3 Creative team, as well as boosted Creator posts. With a mix of creative - graphics-led and creator-led - that supplemented our organic efforts, we hoped to encourage users to take action and utilize the resources available on MHC’s website.
Applying learnings from previous years’ Mental Health Awareness campaigns we activated with the MHC, we leaned on swipeable carousel units and videos to provide tangible guides and tips for dealing with difficult emotions. We incorporated native, social-first elements throughout the ads like emojis, speech bubbles and lifestyle imagery, coupled with MHC’s vibrant colors, heavy block text and simple, dynamic animations to earn the attention of our Gen Z audience.
We crafted a powerful campaign that inspired individuals to share their authentic selves, acknowledge moments of vulnerability, and seek support. Our collective efforts successfully raised awareness about mental health while providing valuable resources to those in need.
Organic Social Results:
Four days into the campaign, the audio started trending on Instagram, with users, celebrities, content creators and influencers posting their own challenge videos using the custom audio from MHC. To date, 460+ users joined the challenge, sharing personal struggles with emotions, anxiety, health, depression and public image.
The Mental Health Coalition, whose sole purpose is to change the way people talk about and care for mental health, saw an exponential increase in impressions, video views, engagement and followers across both TikTok and Instagram during the campaign. On Instagram, a total of 1.2MM accounts were reached; engagement increased by 282% MoM; and MHC gained 2,560 followers in May alone.
Paid Social Results:
The paid campaign drove 157MM impressions, saw a reach of 28MM people, and drove 78K clicks to MHC’s resources page on their website.
