2022 Bronze Thoughtful Marketing

Agency: Digitas UK

Client: Nivea Men

Campaign Name: Strength in Numbers

Campaign Overview

Men's mental health has never been more widely talked about. But the truth is that men still struggle to discuss it and suicide remains the biggest killer of men under 45.

Strategy

Nivea Men wanted to help men start looking after their mental health before it became a problem. Research showed many men simply don't know how to talk about their feelings.

The strategy was to give men the tools to help them start talking and create a healthy routine that would improve their mental fitness and shift talking about feelings from stigma to strength.

To better understand the problem the brand conducted its own research. This revealed that despite many high-profile campaigns advertising campaigns over the past few years encouraging men to 'open up', 44% had never talked about how they feel simply because they don't know how or where to start.

The strategy followed a multichannel approach to give men the tools to help them start talking more regularly, and create a healthy routine that would improve their mental fitness

Creativity

While men struggle to talk about feelings, numbers are a language we all understand. Figures help us quantify the world around us. And for men struggling to talk about their feelings, a number can help them start.

Together with the charity Talk Club, the team created Strength in Numbers, a campaign that championed a simple question: “How are you? Out of 10?”. This would help men of all ages quantify their feelings and start talking more regularly about their mental health as part of a healthy mental fitness routine.

Results

Strength in Numbers has become a long term integrated strategy for the brand, reaching more than 30 million people to date and increasing social engagement by +51% with men aged 18 to 44.

Some 89% of men surveyed said they're more likely to consider speaking about their mental health because of the campaign. Engagement was strong too, with social content engagement +21% above the benchmarked average, and the Nivea Men social following rising by 11.5%. An influencer partnership with Roman Kemp was three times the benchmark.

The Team

Digitas - Emma de la Fosse, Chief Creative Officer - Tim Clegg, Executive Creative Director - Ben Sawyer, Senior Copywriter - Robert Morris, Senior Art Director - Carlos Rodrigues, Planner - Jared Howe, Business Lead - Emma Lycett, Account Director

2AM - Karen Cunningham, Director

Talk Club - Ben Akers, Co-CEO & Co-Founder

Contributors

Prodigious, Talk Club, and Porter Novelli London