Canadian Metal Health Association
Our Challenge
We were asked to create a communications campaign to promote BounceBack®, a CBT-based program for youth and young adults aged 15-24 throughout British Columbia.
The BounceBack® program is an evidence-based initiative designed to help youth and adults experiencing symptoms of mild to moderate depression, low mood, stress or anxiety.
The aim was to promote and raise awareness of the program for youth, as well as physicians, school counsellors, and others who work with young people.
We actively enlisted the help of several Influencers who were outspoken about mental health, such as BC Lions quarterback Mike Reilly, alt-rock band Mother Mother and local radio host and author Casey Jo Loos. They helped us spread the message on social media, in interviews and through subsequent print and outdoor advertising. Knowing celebrities faced some of the same challenges as our audience made the message more relatable.
The Celebrate Everyday Victories campaign was well-received and featured prominently in many schools. The campaign got press across the province. As a program, BounceBack has shown to be successful with a 69% recovery rate for mild to moderate anxiety and depression. The 2019 results from the CEV campaign will be coming in soon.
Outdoor - Transit advertising
This colourful campaign ran throughout the Lower Mainland on dozens of transit shelters and billboards. Students were also reached in hundreds of buses and trains as well as at high-traffic stations such as Broadway, Granville, Surrey Central, and Metrotown.
Digital - Social media campaigns
You need to go the watering hole where the target is at. We used Instagram to reach youth across the Lower Mainland. With Facebook, we reached parents, coaches, counsellors and teachers.
Direct Mail - Brochure design
We created a standard six-panel brochure and printed thousands for schools. We also created 5”x7” postcards to be distributed on-site.
We reached out to dozens of influencers who were outspoken about mental health to join our campaign.
There are small but significant steps one can take towards positive mental health. These small first steps help to shape positive cognitive pathways people often take for granted, such as: getting out of the house, getting eight hours of sleep, or taking a break from screens. These Everyday Victories are the first small steps towards bigger, healthier habits and ways of thinking. They should be more than encouraged, they should be celebrated.
In line with our messaging, we adopted No Screens On School Nights as a family. Taking a break from screens brought a lot of perspective to the toxicity of social media and how damaging it can be to our mental health. Also, I stopped drinking when I got this account. There are a lot of parallels between the enthusiastic encouragement you’ll find in the smallest successes in sobriety and the small, new steps towards healthier habits that are helpful in addressing depression or anxiety. We also had our own first-hand experience with mental illness as a family, and we drew from our experiences when building this campaign.
Tackling teenage anxiety and depression