Client: RMIT
Our Role: Rebrand, Strategy, Multimedia campaign
Mental health is a massive topic for every organisation. Fortifying and contributing to employees mental welfare is becoming more and more important for companies. This is even more so with Universities, who find themselves taking care of not just their staff but also for a large group of 18-30 year old- some of the most susceptible to mental health issues. RMIT came to us with a delicate problem. One in four students had experienced issues and most of them felt like they were the only one. They wanted a campaign to de-stigmatise the notion of talking about mental health. To make it just as easy as talking about any other illness.
Doing a fair bit of research into this area through Crimson Hexagon, what you can clearly see is that there is still a huge stigma against mental health. It seems people are not comfortable as they see themselves as being labeled ‘crazy’ or being ostracized or thought of differently. In terms of communication in this space, students were often dismissive of public service campaigns from other organisations that tried to portray how it feels to have a mental illness. “It just feels totally fake” This was another big insight for us and from this need for authenticity, the idea of ‘uncovering the voices of mental illness at RMIT’ was born. The campaign was based around a series of interviews with students and then we used their direct quotes to pop up
around the campus and in digital platforms talking candidly about what mental health means to them. The campaign was wrapped up with the line “It’s OK to not be OK” and when it was launched, other students were asked to “lend their voice to support these students”. The feel was more peer to peer communication facilitated by the university and it was spectacularly successful.
A snapshot of the the 14 day campaign
1254 unique messages of support broadcast to the website from other students. 10350 Unique views to the campaign microsite. Average user spent 3:10 on the site (KPI 1:15) 52% open rate (KPI 30%) on the EDM with a massive 6% click through (KPI 1.3%)
