Mental health and wellbeing are becoming increasingly important topics of discussion – and rightly so. To attract the top talent – and to retain customers – brands are forced to communicate their wellness policy to their customers and showcase the different ways that they support their employees.
With the help of big names such as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, younger, emerging audiences now care deeply about what brands are doing regarding wellness and mental health. With the pandemic forcing us to work and live differently, this topic is more prominent than ever.
For brands, not communicating their position around wellness – or worse, not having one – can mean losing valuable customers and talent to others. So, to help you avoid that, we’ve put together some thoughts on what makes a brand stand out when it comes to mental health and wellbeing. The best part? This advice comes straight from the horse’s mouth – or in our case, emerging audiences.
Practice What You Preach
These days, it seems everyone cares about wellness in the workplace. The endless signs, statements and cute Instagram posts signal an organisation’s embrace of all things mental health and wellness. Or, so you think. Slogans and statements just won’t cut it. To truly engage with audiences – and more importantly, build a loyal customer base – you need to practice what you preach.
No, this doesn’t necessarily mean yoga days and office stress balls. Instead, you need to show rather than tell. In short: it’s all about honesty and transparency.
First, think about these questions: What type of help is offered to employees? Do you have a department devoted to wellness?
Then, you’ve got to be transparent about your failings, the things you could and would like to do better in the future. With the pandemic, the importance of mental health and wellness means young people are increasingly selecting brands on how they treat their staff – and by extension, how much their brand contributes to a mentally healthy society.
To practice what you preach, start working with your people, encouraging those (who feel comfortable, obviously) to share their experiences by talking about mental health. To engage audiences – and gain new customers along the way – you need to create engaging campaigns which illustrate your support for mental health and wellness. Why not partner up with organisations focused on mental health and wellbeing, using video content and social media to generate awareness and brand interest.
The best part? It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, meaning you won’t have to spend hours mulling over the numbers with your CEO.
And, given, you know, we have experience of working on this sort of thing – not to mention our partnerships with various mental health organisations and influencers – we can help.
Relating to your Audience
Mental health and wellness do not just extend to your staff and employees – but your customers, too. For younger audiences especially, having a brand communicate genuine messages surrounding mental health and wellness is hugely important, often leading to customer loyalty and higher brand engagement.
To help boost your brand engagement – and to demonstrate your commitment to general mental health and wellness – try creating social media content, collaborating with influencers (we can help) and mental health organisations. The benefits? (1) You’re practising what you preach and (2) you’re talking to your younger audiences about what they care about – allowing you to earn their trust and loyalty.
The most important part? Working with people from diverse communities, allowing you to attract and engage audiences. Our UJ networks and influencers mean we can help create, structure and disseminate your message.
To relate to your audience – especially younger, diverse ones – you need to utilise the power of social media. And no, we don’t mean adding some hashtags at the end of every post. Nice try.
Instead, you can disseminate your message with short-form Instagram Reels and TikToks, using content that works. To help, our team of dedicated UJ creatives and influencers work with you, allowing you to create the best and most engaging content – so just call us, okay?
Erasing Stigmas
In today’s world, one of the best things a brand can do is help erase the stigma surrounding mental health. Not only does it allow you to retain and attract talent – it engages today’s audiences, who care deeply about mental health and wellness.
Young people are more likely to shop with brands that produce engaging mental health campaigns. To join the fight, think long term. This allows you to plan campaigns during mental health awareness months, strike key partnerships – and, ultimately, contribute to the stigmatisation of mental health.
We Can Help
To help you get it right, we’ll utilise our team of UJ creatives to help, pulling in partners from our networks, from large mentoring groups to social enterprises. We understand our audience because we are our audience.
Using your brief, we’ll come up with the best ideas, using our experience of working with the target audience and our knowledge of the subject matter to do so. Then, we’ll work with you to identify key messages and audiences. Utilising our experience with various social media platforms, we can help you to create and disseminate your message.