Agency: UM London
Category: Best social impact campaign
Challenge
Suicide prevention charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) teamed up with MoneySuperMarket to understand how to get people talking about financial difficulties and mental health. People can quickly feel isolated and find themselves in a downward spiral when facing financial difficulty. Research was needed to explore how the cost-of-living crisis is impacting mental health and how to help break the societal taboo of talking about finances. Ultimately, CALM and MoneySuperMarket wanted people to get help before it’s too late.
Approach
Working with UM, MoneySuperMarket and CALM created ‘Money Talks’. The project started with research — via in-depth qualitative interviews and a quantitative survey — to understand how financial pressures are impacting people’s mental health. The study found 42% of UK adults are stressed over domestic bills and 74% would welcome financial advice from brands.
The findings informed the content approach of the ‘Money Talks’ campaign on news brands and social. It featured video content from journalist Sam Delaney, content creator Milena Sanchez and social housing campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa, who all shared their first-hand experiences.
Then, to mark Suicide Awareness Day, ads ran across the Guardian, The Times and the Sunday Mirror. Using the research insights, the ads were designed to look like a household bill to normalise and encourage positive conversations around financial pressure. A QR code directed readers to the CALM website where support could be found and donations made.
Results
The ‘Money Talks’ campaign achieved 141k impressions and 2.5% engagement rate across all content, well over the 1% threshold they were aim for. Milena’s video was one of the most popular pieces of content with a 2.96% engagement rate. Over 3000 people went to CALM’s landing page and around 800 people accessed the ‘How to Talk About Money’ pages. 700,000 customers opened the MoneySuperMarket email launching the ‘Money Talks’ hub. What’s more, former MP Luciana Berger is using the research as part of her cross-party work to lower suicide rates and improving mental health services across the UK.
Judges view
This campaign was a fantastic bringing together of a business and a charity to drive the understanding and distribution of help and resources to people struggling with their mental health.
Jem Lloyd-Williams, CEO, Mindshare UK
