New stresses and bad habits
2020 has been a challenging year, with COVID-19 and the associated lockdowns impacting everyone. People are stressed about work, confined to their houses and facing extended periods of social isolation.
An unfortunate side effect of this has been a major uptake in drinking, with more than 30% of Australians now drinking daily.
As part of a series of ongoing campaigns with the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, Icon Agency was tasked with creating and executing a highly-targeted campaign aimed at encouraging female millennials (women aged 22-38) to think more about the benefits of drinking less to their mental and physical health.
An unhealthy way of coping
The Alcohol and Drug Foundation (ADF) is an important organisation with a long history of encouraging Australians to think more about their drinking behaviours in an empathetic and compassionate manner. Lately, their focus has been addressing the drastic rise in casual drinking in the home.
It’s easy to fall back on bad habits when things get bad. COVID-19 has introduced stresses into daily life that are hard to navigate, but increasingly we’re seeing alcohol be used as a coping mechanism.
Frequent alcohol consumption is linked to weight gain, poor liver and heart health, disrupted sleep, memory loss and decreased brain functionality. As such, it’s crucial Australians aren’t abusing this substance, and are looking after themselves during this difficult period.
Speaking to a stressed audience
The key to this campaign would have to be empathy. This isn’t about telling people how to live their lives or putting people down, it’s about helping people to be the best versions of themselves, and to look after themselves in this time of crisis. As such, the broad emotional tone would have to be one of compassion – about looking out for one-another and wanting to help.
What’s more, with the shutdown of many bars, pubs and restaurants, communications from alcohol retailers has been strongly targeted towards the home – encouraging people to loosen up and have a drink to reward themselves after a hard day. We would have to ensure our communications were effectively countering these materials, from both a look-and-feel perspective, as well as a factual one.
Celebrate You
Following extensive research and multiple creative rounds, we developed a campaign and movement that would encourage Australians to push the drinks aside in favour of a healthier lifestyle.
‘Celebrate You’ is about taking back control – not relying on alcohol to mitigate stress and instead focusing on improving physical and mental health, saving money and getting a good night’s sleep.
The creative is colourful and eye-catching, visually encouraging Australians to celebrate smart decisions. Creative executions are backed by an extensive PR, media and digital communications strategy that ensures we’re maximising opportunities in every channel. PR executions feature influencer sponsorships, with health, fashion and lifestyle influencers being provided a toolkit of ADF-approved facts and the hashtag #celebrateyou to link isolated posts together as a movement for positive change.
Throughout the campaign 36 pieces of influencer content were created amplifying the # and messaging with a total reach of 940k. PR activities were further supported by a targeted media relations campaign leveraging six key areas of health and well-being most relevant to the target audience. This included tailored story ideas accompanied by recent data sets that were pitched out to Australia’s national lifestyle and consumer publications.
The campaign secured an earned media reach of over 5.5million in three weeks. During the campaign period, ADF would feature campaign content on all social channels, further boosting messaging while generating brand salience. All creative and PR activities were supported by an intricate Digital Marketing strategy operating in multiple channels.
In just over two weeks, the campaign had a reach of over 750k within our target audience. The five creative videos delivered 3.6 million impressions between them on a CPM of only $6.21, while Instagram following grew by 200%.
