Why is this work relevant for Direct?

The Background Blindspot is a direct, awareness campaign; sitting at the alchemy of insights, creativity, and media. The project was a timely response to the world's longest Covid-19 lockdown occurring in Melbourne, Australia. In partnership with Microsoft, on a $0 media budget, Background Blindspot is an engaging piece of work which publicly educates #WFH professionals and facilitates proactive mental health personal care. The campaign produced a profound effect on our target audience that will linger for years to come. The Background Blindspot is a phenomenal example of response-driven creativity in the health and wellness space.

Background

The Covid lockdown has taken a toll on Australia’s mental health. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, one in five Aussies reported high levels of psychological distress between June 2020 and June 2021. It also may come as a surprise that 17.6 million national mental health-related services were processed this year. Plus, over the past 12 months, Australia’s leading suicide prevention hotline service, Lifeline, received a 40% increase in calls. It’s clear the pandemic has been tough. But with the endless stream of 24/7 #WFH video meetings, you’d think it would be easy to spot the red flags of someone who may be struggling. Not so. As one of the world’s leading video conferencing software developers, Microsoft Teams wanted to offer support through challenging lockdown times, while opening Australians’ eyes to the mental health crisis.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

Did you know the average remote worker spends 40% of their video call time looking at themselves? Yes, at themselves. How can you see the full picture when you have a blindspot? For World Mental Health Day 2021, on a $0 media budget, Microsoft launched the Background Blindspot—a groundbreaking Microsoft Teams social experiment that confirms we are all blinkered when it comes to noticing mental health struggles online. The social experiment ran across five days, guided by psychologist Sabina Read. From empty wine bottles to dishevelled hair, each day our volunteers showed changes in behaviour, appearance and background. After 180 hours of video calls and 84 virtual participants, did anyone reach out? Not one. What started as a small experiment to normalise mental health conversation in lockdown, transformed into an eye-opening campaign capturing the hearts and minds of over 1,000,000 people.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

During the pandemic, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported an 80% increase in internet usage (2020-2021). The primary demographic were corporate professionals across the country who migrated into their living rooms. With the explosion of Microsoft Teams and back-to-back video meetings, Microsoft wanted to champion mental wellbeing and reduce video call fatigue. Thus, we developed a wellbeing strategy to reexamine the relationship remote workers had with their screens to create a mentally healthier space for all. Our approach was a direct, digital campaign to inspire action and change behaviour. Our target audience were remote workers—both those directly impacted by the social experiment, and the wider community who viewed the content piece. The call to action directed Australians to www.backgroundblindspot.com where we collected data. The page was also equipped with an interactive role-playing experience, videos from our psychologist, and downloadable, personalised Microsoft Teams backgrounds.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Background Blindspot is an arresting invitation to kickstart the conversation and advocate for workplace neurodiversity. From ideation to completion, the timeline was an eight week development period. The social experiment took place between September 20-24th, 2021. The website and social experiment content went live for World Mental Health Day October on 10th, 2021. Two weeks post-launch, results were picked up by local and international press, regional and metropolitan radio, digital, and Channel 7’s The Morning Show. To scale the campaign and prove Australia really did have a digital blindspot, we extended the experiment to Social with a leading influencer. Over five days, our influencer changed his background, behaviour and appearance. Would you have noticed? Not one person in his community did. As a cherry on top, two of Australia’s most trusted charities supported the campaign—RUOK? and ReachOut.

List the results (30% of vote)

This thoughtful, direct marketing campaign created a ripple effect for online public health awareness and perception change in Australia—but most importantly, it reminded our target audience to see beyond their blindspot. Our reach, engagement and impact: • Over 1 million impressions (501,445 impressions across TV and Radio & 538,150 impressions across Web and Social) • International press coverage • More than half of website visitors spent 3 minutes or more on the site. • 1 in 6 website visitors downloaded our Microsoft Teams World Mental Health Day backgrounds. • Two of Australia’s most trusted charities supported the campaign: RUOK? and ReachOut. • $0 media budget • 100% change in perspective While working online brings new opportunities, it also poses new challenges. The Background Blindspot is just the beginning when advocating for mental health, as we continue to look out for one another in a new digital world.