BEYOND THE LABEL

Short List
TitleBEYOND THE LABEL
BrandNATIONAL COUNCIL OF SOCIAL SERVICE
Product / ServicePUBLIC EDUCATION CAMPAIGN (MENTAL HEALTH)
CategoryG03. Single Market Campaign
EntrantUM SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Idea Creation UM SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Idea Creation 2 McCANN SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Media Placement UM SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
PR OGILVY SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
PR 2 OGILVY SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Production McCANN SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE

Credits

Name Company Position
Larriah Bernardo UM Singapore Associate Client Manager
Fiona Sim UM Singapore Group Director
Fathrul Fazakir McCann Worldgroup Singapore Regional Group Account Director
Clarissa Choo McCann Worldgroup Singapore Account Executive

Why is this work relevant for Media?

Beyond the Label is a remarkable proof that media’s purpose goes beyond generating business outcomes or overachieving on KPIs. It has the capability to change people’s perception and behavior. This campaign has become the foundation of a more enriched and fruitful conversation about mental health, which awakened empathy amongst Singaporeans, but more importantly, enabled people with mental health conditions to share their stories and inspire others.

Background

In the last two years, there has been an unprecedented volume of conversations on mental health issues globally. Despite this increase, NCSS was still witnessing a societal stigma associated with persons with mental health conditions (PMHCs) in Singapore. We were tasked to move the needle and turn negative perceptions around due to long-standing biases against PMHCs. Our media campaign needed to achieve three core objectives: 1. Get noticed (40% campaign awareness in year one) 2. Increase empathy (5% uplift in current attitudes / beliefs about PMHCs) 3. Inspire change (3% uplift in positive behaviour for PMHC among those seeing the campaign)

Describe the creative idea/insights (30% of vote)

Research revealed that stigma was the main hurdle preventing conversations about mental health, let alone empathy from being exercised. Even if 69%* of Singaporeans recognize that PMHCs experience stigma and discrimination, over 50%* of the public have feelings of prejudice towards PMHCs due to the lack of education and various misconceptions on PMHCs. There is a significant difference with how people view someone with a visible illness versus PMHCs, which do not have physical manifestations. While stigma paved way for judgement and indifference, sympathy is always present when it comes to subject matter like physical illness, which leads to our insight – people can possibly have sympathy for PMHCs, though sympathy does not necessarily change behavior. We needed to leverage on the idea that we can awaken the empathic nature of Singaporeans through self-reflection moments, using relatable scenarios in the workplace, schools, and even in close-knit environments such as homes.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

We needed to find a common connection that would motivate Singaporeans to interact with the campaign, listen to our message, and start with behavioural change. Whilst Singaporeans have sympathy for illness, there is not enough empathy for PMHCs. We needed to turn mental health issues into everyday conversations and not a taboo subject. Key message should reach them within captive environments, uninterrupted content viewing experience, and time of day when people are more receptive to messages for a very sensitive subject matter such as mental health. Our campaign idea was born – awaken the empathic Singaporean – an integrated media campaign, where content needed to challenge the existing perceptions around PMHCs and motivate everyone for behavior change towards a more accepting society Together with the creative agency, we built series of video content shown in selected integrated media channels, including social, cinema, high-reach digital, and targeted outdoor placements.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The campaign’s integrated journey started with the 4-min social experiment video, which featured brave PMHCs, was launched across all digital platforms (social, programmatic, YouTube). To further capture the audience’s attention, we also showed this video in cinemas islandwide, where environment is captive and audiences are already receptive to long-form content. Three more PMHCs willingly shared their stories via testimonial videos that gave a glimpse of how PMHCs live their daily lives. These stories were featured on several digital placements and were used to create an interactive mobile rich media ad. The KVs were launched through prominent OOH buys, including platform screen doors and bus shelter panels. SEM and social posts were bought in order to extend reach and campaign awareness, which worked well to bring more attention to the campaign assets Content partners (SGAG and OGS) were also deployed to leverage on their unique voice in conveying the campaign message.

List the results (30% of vote)

Beyond the Label surpassed all its targets, delivering significant positive shifts in Singaporeans' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour. 1. Get noticed: • Overall campaign awareness reached 66%, driven largely by the social experiment video and the OOH placements, beating the target by 65% • The social experiment video garnered more than 2.9 million views – enough to make it to YouTube’s top ad for the 2nd half of 2018 in Singapore, beating (among others) the iPhone XS launch 2. Build empathy: • On a wide range of knowledge and empathy measures, BTL improved attitudes toward PMHCs well beyond target – indeed, on almost every measure the gain far exceeded 5%*. 3. Inspire change: • BTL improved positive behaviors (and decreased negative ones) well beyond the target – indeed, the minimum improvement measured was 3x the target level*. *For simplicity, all these results are indexed to pre-campaign measurements

Please tell us how you designed/adapted your campaign for the single country / region / market where it aired.

Research revealed that stigma was the main hurdle preventing conversations about mental health, let alone empathy from being exercised. Even if 69%* of Singaporeans recognize that PMHCs experience stigma and discrimination, over 50%* of the public have feelings of prejudice towards PMHCs due to the lack of education and various misconceptions on PMHCs. There is a significant difference with how people view someone with a visible illness versus PMHCs, which do not have physical manifestations. While stigma paved way for judgement and indifference, sympathy is always present when it comes to subject matter like physical illness, which leads to our insight – people can possibly have sympathy for PMHCs, though sympathy does not necessarily change behavior. We needed to leverage on the idea that we can awaken the empathic nature of Singaporeans through self-reflection moments, using relatable scenarios in the workplace, schools, and even in close-knit environments such as homes.

Links

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