How we did it

We wanted to communicate what the website was, as well as utilising MindMate’s ambassadors – young people in Leeds with direct experience of mental health issues.

Our campaign focused on creative and highly-targeted digital activity including:

• Geo-targeting young males via branded video ads on digital pitch-side hoardings on Football Manager 2018 – a first for the NHS.
• A #MindMay8 digital influencer day, encouraging people to donate a tweet or Facebook update, culminating in a social media Thunderclap on May 8
• Digital caricatures of the ambassadors were created as Snapchat filters, which were geotargeted and promoted at events across the region

In addition, we provided creative social content on the MindMate Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.

The results

Overall, the wider campaign generated a 22% increase in traffic to the website in the first three months of the campaign versus the three-month period prior to launch – the number of 18 to 24-year-old males rose 28%.

Click-throughs from social media content rose 439% over the same period and accounts increased their audience by 48% on average. Snapchat filters were viewed more than 7,500 times in the first week alone.

The Football Manager activity created 492,000 impressions via 23,000 players and the resulting media coverage reached almost 8m people and was praised by the CEO of David Beckham’s MLS club.