2016 Silver Best use of social media

Agency TMW Unlimited

Client Lynx - Unilever & CALM

Campaign summary

A dog on a skateboard is bigger than suicide

Campaign overview

The brief was to increase awareness of male suicide in the UK - the single biggest killer of men under the age of 45.

Strategy

Suicide is now the single biggest killer of young guys in the UK.

But very few people know that fact. And even fewer are talking about it.

The alarming upward trend in men killing themselves will continue unabated until people start talking openly about the scale of the problem.

Lynx partnered with UK charity CALM to develop the #BiggerIssues campaign, with the objective of increasing awareness.

A brand synonymous with young men and masculinity, Lynx’s reach could provide a new approach to a social issue that needed new tactics to address it. The strategy examined the comparatively trivial things people talk about more than male suicide.

From new emojis to new cat memes, trendy superfoods to trending Christmas ads, #BiggerIssues held a mirror up to all the things that were dominating guys’ conversations.

Creativity

Live social listening was behind a national campaign with more than 700 digital billboards, social media and online banners.

The creative used those inane subjects that monopolise newsfeeds. The Next Top Gear Presenter Is Bigger Than Suicide, A Dog On A Skateboard Is Bigger Than Suicide.

One idea, hundreds of headlines.

To reflect the rate guys take their own lives in the UK, billboards around the country updated every two hours, 24 hours a day, for the duration of the campaign.

A custom-built content management system pushed headlines and creative billboards in real-time and topics were tailored for the regions.

Hyper-relevant, timely versions of the ads were all around the country. The campaign encouraged people to sign up to have an automated Tweet sent from their Twitter profile to help get male suicide talked about more than trivial topics.

Results

According to YouGov, awareness of suicide as the single biggest killer of young men increased by 45% nationally and by 120% in London to become the highest it’s ever been. There were 20,000 online mentions of #BiggerIssues, with a social reach of 108 million.

Mentions came from those affected by the issue, those who had never engaged before and high profile artists with huge influence.

The exposure resulted in male suicide debated in Parliament for the first time. This was a historic breakthrough, made possible by a powerful brand-charity partnership bravely re-framing the issue. It even won the attention of British royalty. His Royal Highness Prince William, Duke of Cambridge contacted CALM and Lynx to invite both parties to help spearhead his ‘Heads Together’ coalition - a venture to drive public understanding of mental health related issues. The campaign reached its climax to coincide with International Men’s Day, and #BiggerIssues trended organically across the country.

Team

Contributors