1. S O M E T I M E S L O V E I S
N O T E N O U G H
A P G P L A N N I N G I D O L 2 0 1 5
ELOISE LILEY
BLUE HIVE AUSTRALIA
2. 2
SYNOPSIS
Australian youth are in the midst of a mental health crisis. To help, ReachOut is ‘reaching out’ to
parents and carers so that they can better help the young people in their lives.
Research uncovered that parents are reluctant to consider the possibility of their child’s poor
mental health. Through defence mechanisms born out of love for their child, parents unwittingly
turn a blind eye to the problem. They wrongly presume that love guarantees their child’s mental
wellbeing, but the truth is that parental love is the culprit not the cure!
This led to the strategic breakthrough:
“Love is not enough. It must be the foundation, the cornerstone
- but not the structure. It is much too pliable, too yielding.”
- Quentin Crisp
Writer
Parents must make their child more important than their love for them.
A subtle, yet important shift in the battle against poor mental health.
By exposing how love alone can’t guarantee a child’s mental wellbeing this strategy will compel
parents to take preventative action.
Creative expression will show the heart-rending depiction of how real-life loving relationships
failed four Australian parents who lost their child to suicide. Thereby opening parents’ eyes to
the problem by making them more likely to ‘reach out’ for help when they need it most.
3. 3
WHERE ARE WE NOW?
Type in “young Australian” to Google search and you’re served countless images of optimistic,
energetic, smiling youth seemingly in a world full of opportunity. Heartbreakingly, this is not the
reality. Australian youth are experiencing a mental health crisis.
Alarmingly, suicide remains the biggest killer of young people1
, with 1 in 4 experiencing a
mental health disorder in the last 12 months2
. Yet despite mental ill-health costing the economy
$40,000,000 per year3
, only 1 in 3 females and 1 in 2 males are receiving the support they need4
.
ReachOut, an online mental health service for young people has been working tirelessly to
improve these numbers. In January 2016, ReachOut will ‘reach out’ to the parents/ carers of
young people aged 14-25 years, by launching au.reachoutparents.com. The task at hand is to
build awareness for this new initiative.
4. 4
WHY ARE WE THERE?
Qualitative research shows that in comparison to young people, parents are less likely to be
aware of the prevalence of mental health disorders5
. In fact, some parents are unaware that
their adolescent’s mental well-being is at risk6
.
Depth interviews conducted with parents of young people currently suffering from a mental
health disorder, high school teachers and young people themselves indicated that parents are
seemingly reluctant to acknowledge the issue7
.
Throughout the interviews it became evident that parents employ a series of defence mechanisms
to cope with and ultimately ignore the possibility of their child’s poor mental health.
“I think a lot of parents just don’t want to acknowledge it.
They put their head in the sand because they don’t want to
see it.”
- Parent
5. 5
Research uncovered the four key defence mechanisms that parents employ:
“Why her, why us? How did this happen when we’ve given the kids everything - a good education,
good family, nice house, good friends!” (Parent)
1. A positive childhood protects you from having poor mental health.
“I taught a teenage girl whose eating behaviour changed dramatically. I kept telling her Mum but
she didn’t want to hear it. Two years later the girl was hospitalised with anorexia” (Teacher)
2. Behavioural change is just teenage angst.
“There’s this idea that people with mental health problems are dangerous. It makes you worry
about your child’s future.” (Parent)
3. Parents protect their child from stigmatisation.
“When you see so many (young people) you see what’s ok and what isn’t. As teachers our role isn’t
just to educate the children but to educate the parents. And you know what? Parents are much
harder to educate!” (Teacher)
4. Only a parent knows what’s best for their child.
REFRAMING THE PROBLEM :
These well-intentioned parents had unwittingly turned a blind eye to their child’s mental
wellbeing.
The biggest barrier preventing youth from getting help is in fact the parents themselves.
6. 6
WHERE COULD WE BE?
ATTITUDINAL
COMMUNICATIONS OBJECTIVES :
Open parents’ eyes – get them to realise that they are a part of the problem.
BEHAVIOURAL
Breakthrough parental reluctance - by giving parents no choice but to ‘reach
out’ to au.reachoutparents.com.
SEARCHING FOR THE INSIGHT :
“Love cures people - both the ones who give it and the ones who
receive it.” - Dr Karl Menninger
Prominent psychiatrist
Or does it?
We live in a society that idealises love. Our social narratives position love as the ultimate goal
in life; the solution to all problems; the source of happiness, fulfilment and peace.
This social norming even extends to parenthood. Prior to becoming a parent, we are told that
our most important role is to give unconditional love to our child. As parents, we devote our
lives to demonstrating this love to our children.
Yet because we idealise love, we overestimate its power.
7. 7
We forget that there are times where responsibility, guidance and hard advice must take
precedence over acts of love. And inevitably, when we do forget, our lives and relationships pay
a price.
Our research discovered that, teachers, siblings and friends were more adept at spotting the
precursors to mental health disorders than parents themselves. The parents’ actions were
motivated by love but this love was preventing them from recognising their child’s mental
health disorder.
INSIGHT :
Parental love blinds parents from seeing the first signs of mental illness in their child.
Love is the culprit not the cure.
COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY :
The need of the hour is to break through the cognitive dissonance surrounding parental love.
Unless we do that, parents will continue to be blinded to the reality of their child’s poor mental
health and continue to disregard ReachOut Parents.
The question was how?
Inspiration came from a perceptive teacher. Referring to her own child, she recalled that as a
new parent she had been advised to “love her child without emotion7
.” To do this she had to
make her child, not her love for her child, the ultimate goal.
THE CORE STRATEGIC THOUGHT :
Parents need to make their child more important than
their love for them.
8. 8
HOW DO WE GET THERE?
THE BRIEF :
WHOSE : Love for their child blinds them from seeing the precursors to a
mental health disorder
GET : Parents of young Australians aged 14-25 nationally
TO : Make their child’s mental health more important than their love
for them
BY : Exposing how love alone can’t guarantee their child’s mental
well-being
TONE OF VOICE :
Brutally honest, empathetic & human.
BUDGET :
Total: $50,000 (Production: $17,000; Media: $33,000)
CREATIVE IDEA :
Tug at the heartstrings of every parent by demonstrating to them, how love alone won’t save
their child(ren) from a mental health disorder, via the people who know this best – Australian
parents who have lost their child to suicide.
SOMETIMES LOVE IS NOT ENOUGH
9. 9
EXECUTION :
We will use the stories of four parents’ relationships with their adolescent children to highlight
the common bond shared by parents – their unconditional love for their children.
However, this shared love will be used as a vehicle to perpetuate behaviour. Through homemade
video footage our parents will candidly relay their most treasured moments with their child,
only to reveal that love was no guarantee of the mental well-being of their child.
Through these heart-rending stories we will create one 2-minute short film. At the end of the
film, the viewer will be urged to log onto ReachOut Parents and learn what our parents wished
they had known before it was too late - the key skills, signs and assistance that can help prevent
mental health disorders from going unnoticed.
Three, 15-second cutdowns of the film will be created for use on social media.
Both types of content will direct viewers au.reachoutparents.com or to share the message.
MEDIA THINKING :
As the content will be housed on the au.reachoutparents.com homepage and YouTube channel,
we need to generate brand awareness and web traffic while parents are online.
Roy Morgan shows that in the last week, during the hours of 6-9pm8
:
• 47.2% of parents aged 40-65 years used Facebook
• 69.2% used Google search
• 6% used Twitter
EARNED MEDIA THINKING :
Limited budget dictates the need for earned media coverage. Despite low usage amongst
parents, Twitter represents an opportunity to drive free coverage, word-of-mouth and awareness
for the campaign amongst key media personnel and public.
10. 10
MISSION BY CHANNEL :
OBJECTIVE 1 - OPEN PARENTS EYES TO THE PROBLEM
INFLUENCER STRATEGY
FACEBOOK
AUDIENCE: Parents
TIMEFRAME: Feb. 1-3 (the first 48 hours of website launch)
AIM: 47 influencers will encourage parents to engage with ReachOut Parents by posting the website link and a 15”
cutdown of the content to their social feeds
BUDGET ALLOCATION: Nil
TWITTER
AUDIENCE: Public / Media
TIMEFRAME: Feb. 1-3 (the first 48 hours of website launch)
AIM: The same 47 influencers will encourage the general public to engage with ReachOut Parents by posting the
website link and a 15” cutdown of the content to their social feeds
BUDGET ALLOCATION: Nil
MENTAL HEALTH DAY ACTIVATION
AUDIENCE: Parents & Public
TIMEFRAME: October 10, 2016
AIM: 47 influencers will again target parents/ public by posting the website link and an alternate cutdown to their feeds
BUDGET ALLOCATION: Nil
SEM
AUDIENCE: Parents
TIMEFRAME: Always on
AIM: Direct parents key searches into web traffic to au.reachoutparents.com
BUDGET ALLOCATION: Nil
*Budget already accounted for as part of website costs.
OBJECTIVE 2 - BREAKTHROUGH PARENTAL RELUCTANCE
FACEBOOK DARKPOST
AUDIENCE: Parents
TIMEFRAME: May- July
AIM: : Use highly targeted darkposts to target parents who haven’t yet seen the campaign but are more likely to respond
it
• Darkposts to include website link and 15” cutdown of the content
• The 3 lookalike audiences will be created from cookie data of visitors to au.reachoutparents.com
BUDGET ALLOCATION: $11,000 per audience, $33,000 total
11. 11
ARE WE GETTING THERE?
ATTITUDINAL MEASURES:
MEASURABLE OBJECTIVES :
The ultimate goal of the campaign is to get parents of 14-25 year old Australians more aware
of and engaged with au.reachoutparents.com.
As such, the measurement of the campaign effectiveness will be twofold:
Online research will be conducted nationally to measure the attitudinal shifts amongst parents.
Specifically this will measure for an increase in awareness of ReachOut Parents and an increase
in awareness of the issues surrounding mental health disorders in young Australians.
After this research we hope to meet the following benchmarks:
• 1 in 3 parents aware of ReachOut Parents by October 2016.
• 1 in 3 parents aware of the prevalence of mental health disorders in young people.
BEHAVIOURAL MEASURES:
From launch, digital and social tracking will measure the following metrics on a fortnightly basis:
• Google search trends
• Number of unique visits to au.reachoutparents.com
• Dwell time on site
• Social interactions (views, likes, shares, comments)
In 2017, we will also measure the number of young Australians who don’t access help to see if
these figures have improved as a result of the campaign.
ADDITIONAL INDICATORS:
• Earned media
• Positive ROI for the campaign
12. 12
FORECASTED CAMPAIGN RESULTS :
The following results are expected of the campaign.
*NB: please refer to appendix for calculations
13. 13
1 Australian Government: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Leading causes of death, http://www.aihw.
gov.au/deaths/leading-causes-of-death/ 26th of September 2015
2 Beyond Blue, Stats and Facts https://www.youthbeyondblue.com/footer/stats-and-facts 26th of September
2015
3 Australian Government: National Mental Health Commission, National review of mental health programmes and
services report media release http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov.au/media-centre/news/national-review-of-
mental-health-programmes-and-services-report-released.aspx 10th of October 2015
4 Reachout.com, Crossroads: Rethinking the Australian mental health system report, 22nd of September 2015
5 Online Qualitative Survey, Survey Monkey, n=36, conducted by Eloise Liley from the 3rd -10th of October 2015.
6 Australian Government, The Mental Health of Children and Adolescents: Report on the second Australian child
and adolescent survey of mental health and wellbeing, 22nd of September 2015
7 Depth Interviews, Parents of children with a current mental health disorder n=3, Highschool teachers n=2,
young people currently suffering from a mental health disorder n=2 conducted by Eloise Liley from the 3rd -10th
of October 2015.
8 Roy Morgan, Data Run: Parents with 16-17 year old child at home, aged 45-60 years; Online Activities in last 7
days; Digital Channels Used, 22nd of September 2015.
REFERENCES
14. 14
APPENDIX
Taken from http://thereslifeafter.reachout.com/3/ and found based on high relevance to parents of 14-25 year
olds in Australia. Cells in blue are the 37 influencers from Life After Year Twelve. Cells in yellow are the influencers
we must approach- should any of these influencers refuse to participate in the campaign we will find other influ-
encers with equivalent reach.
INFLUENCER STRATEGY - CALCULATIONS
15. 15
a) 2,000,666 unique impressions amongst parents and a total campaign reach of 15 million.
Parent Impressions:
1,650,000 (darkposts) + 350,666 (influencer) = 2,000,666 unique impressions amongst parents
ABS indicates there are 6.8 million parents of youths aged 40-65 years in Australia. Therefore 1 in 3 parents will be
reached as a result of the campaign.
b) 110,552 unique visits by parents to au.reachout.com
82,500 (darkposts) + 28,052 (influencer) = 110,552 unique visits by parents to au.reachout.com
c) 180,685 Social interactions (views, likes, shares, comments)
As the content will live on au.reachoutparents.com it is assumed that YouTube views will match that of total unique
visits by parents to the site. i.e. 110,552 views
110,552 (YouTube) + 70,133 (influencer engagement) = 180,685 Social interactions (views, likes, shares, comments)
FORECASTED RESULTS - CALCULATIONS:
Parents:
Facebook:
Our 47 influencers share over 1,753,338 million followers on Facebook. 10% of this total audience will see the
content as per the 10% Facebook rule. Therefore, 175,333 parents will see the content in the first 48 hours.
On Facebook the average engagement rate for these influencers is 20%. This was calculated by taking the top
Facebook performers average interaction level over the last 5 posts on the 12/10/2015.Therefore it is expected
that, 35,066 parents will like, share or comment on the post
Given this high level of engagement we assume the 5% CTR rate will increase to 8%. This is because content that
comes from a significant other rather than a brand is better received in Australia.
Assuming we can gain an average CTR of 8% we can expect to drive 14,026 unique visitor’s to the website 48
hours after the website has launched.
General Public:
Twitter:
By posting to their feeds our followers will generate 6,547,783 impressions. Assuming we can gain an average CTR
of 5% amongst the general public we can expect to drive 327,389 unique visitor’s to the website 48 hours after the
website has launched.
It is assumed that we will generate the same amount of traction in the second campaign wave.
INFLUENCER STRATEGY CALCULATIONS
16. 16
Therefore overall engagement figures for the influencer campaign will be:
Parents:
• 28,052 unique visits to the website
• 350,666 unique impressions
• 70,133 likes/shares/comments
Public for WOM/ earned media purposes:
• 13,095,566 impressions
• 654,778 visits to the website
FACEBOOK DARKPOSTS:
Australian Bureau of Statistics leads us to believe that there are roughly 6.8 million parents of young people
aged 14-25 years. If an average of 50% of those use Facebook then we can target 3.4 million parents.
The darkposts will generate a total reach amongst parents of 1,650,000. The higher the level of engagement on a
post in general the less it costs. Given the highly engaging and emotionally charged content past learning’s with
similar target audiences leads us to expect to pay $0.02 per post.
The same industry data assumes a 5% baseline click through rate for darkpost content. Assuming we generate
the 5% CTR benchmark for the 3 audiences we can expect to generate 82,500 unique visitors to the website.