Te Hiringa Hauora/HPA takes a new approach to youth mental health in new campaign ‘How To Do Nothing’ via FCB New Zealand
It’s a confronting fact that Aotearoa has the highest youth suicide rate in the developed world. Young people in NZ are exhibiting high levels of mental distress, with a third of those young people not receiving support in the way they need. Te Hiringa Hauora (now Te Whatu Ora) and FCB set out to understand the most effective ways young Kiwis facing mental health struggles could be supported by their peers.
Traditionally, communication campaigns around this subject are targeted at the person suffering mental health issues, and not their support network. This approach could often be met with little or no engagement, as the sufferer is not inclined to take action; a major marker of deteriorating mental health: an unfortunate Catch-22.
But research suggested that, whilst young people desperately want to help their friends, they often don’t feel equipped to do so. They don’t realise support doesn’t need to be a full-on conversation and that just hanging out/being there is an extremely effective way to start helping.
Targeting the most vulnerable age range of 15 – 19, workshops with rangitahi were conducted which explored this insight. The research findings were resoundingly confirmed and so ‘How To Do Nothing’ was created.
Says Leisa Wall and Peter Vegas, co-ECDs, FCB: “This job is very close to our hearts. It’s such an important issue and this was a chance to talk to the people in need in a new way. At first glance the idea might seem counter intuitive, especially for people outside the target audience, but for us the reward has been the response from the kids this work is made for.”
Says Bronwyn Mildon, senior marketing lead at Te Whatu Ora: “How To Do Nothing is a campaign developed with young people, for young people – to remind them that they can help by just being there and by doing nothing together. Who would have thought it could be so important to do nothing together?”
The campaign consists of five 60” online films, three 60” TVCs, Spotify and radio ads, Twitch partnerships, and a presence on Instagram and TikTok. And directs viewers to TheLowdown.co.nz where they can get more information and resources.
20 Comments
Turns out I enjoy watching nothing. Nicely done.
This is good. Meaningful and good. Hats off.
Really really nice idea. Great direction.
No it is not good.
It’s alright Jay you’ll be okay.
Really good work
It hasn’t helped locking kids up and away from school during covid. The govt was warned that there would be huge consequences. The govt is absolutely hopeless.
Nice.
FCB has been doing better work recently. This is good.
The alternative wouldn’t be that flash either with kids seeing their parents and grand parents getting sick and dying. There was a mental health crisis prior to Covid and it might or might not have gotten worse through it but lets not put down good work addressing a needy cause to take pot shots.
I like this a lot. Smart strat, funny ads, good take out. Bravo.
A good, proper simple idea that had to be executed well.
And holy shit yes it was.
Who shot it?
Nice one fellas @A&A
Michael Braid
Im very proud of him. and his mo
It’s beautifully shot etc, but it’s not going to be good at what it’s meant to do i.e. stopping kids from killing themselves. The underlying “strategy” is awful and must be pinned on lazy clients. This work will result in a zero per cent change in mental health outcomes for young people in NZ. Take the budget and do something useful, like fund Mike King’s initiative, or give them a toolkit to help their friends or something. P.S. producing five x 1 minute long videos, while good for FCBs bottom line, seems awfully out of touch with the youths (though I suppose there will be cut downs etc etc)… again blame the clients for being too easily sold.
This is about a long term cultural shift. Not a numbers-based-anxiety-fueled ‘yell and shout’. This message is freeing and powerful. They’re freeing young kids with the knowledge they need to genuinely help their mates – be there. That’s it. Great stuff.
A long-term cultural shift? Yea, nah. That’s such a silly argument in defence of the work. You can paint everything in that light and then put its lack of effectiveness down to it being long-term. We’re not shifting brand perception of cola here, we’re trying to save young kids lives.
An effective short & long-term shift is making the changes required to fund the councillors and services required to meet the demand, not wasting money on ineffective work. It’s easy for the clients to stand back and go look at these shiny minute-long movies and say “job done”. Certainly a hell of a lot easier than making real change like maybe saying perhaps our salary is best spent elsewhere… anyway enough arguing in the comments section. Going to go grab my shovel and keep trying to move this mountain.
Clearly this is just a Maori and Pacifica issue then?