ENCOURAGING MENTAL HEALTH CONVERSATIONS
The behavioural science behind the Time to Change #AskTwice campaign
Ogilvy Consulting Behavioural Science Practice & Ogilvy UK
THE CHALLENGE
How can we get men and young people to step in and talk to a friend who is acting differently?
Time to Change is a growing social movement working to change the way we all think and act about mental health problems.
Despite the progress society has made, we know that many people still don’t consider mental health relevant to them. They don’t believe mental health problems are likely to affect them or people they know.
But the reality is that mental health can affect anyone. Statistically, 1 in 4 of us will fight a mental health problem in any given year. They asked us to help them build a campaign that will drive behaviour change, by getting key audiences to step in a talk to a friend in need.
UNSEEN OPPORTUNITY
We applied the COM-B model of behaviour change across all of the Time to Change research conduced in the last five years, with a particular focus on young people and C1C2D men. Both of these groups could identify when a friend was acting differently but lack the psychological capability to understand how to step in and have a conversation about mental health. They didn’t know how to start these vital conversations. We needed to show them with what a realistic mental health conversation looks like.
Young People:
C1C2D men:
From the COM-B diagnosis, three creative concepts were brought into research. Research consisted of a mix of nine smaller focus groups and larger two larger hall tests, engaging over 90 people in total.
The clear winner from testing was ‘Ask Twice’, a message which encourages those to ask their friends how they are twice, to avoid the default response of ’I’m fine’ the first time around.
RESULTS
The #AskTwice campaign will roll out across TV, social media, pub posters and beer mats from October 2018.