The Challenge

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, women’s mental health has seen a huge decline. Bupa commissioned a research study to understand the gaps in mental health support. The research revealed some harrowing realities into the mental health stressors, personal impact and the delays in treatments. One of the key challenges identified was that people are not getting early mental health support early enough to significantly improve outcomes. They briefed us to create a campaign that highlights how women are being held to unachievable expectations, creating a false reality to reveal and highlight that it’s ok to show you the real you.

The Approach

With the rise of social media, comes a rise in poor mental wellbeing. People are encouraged to make their lives on social media look perfect. But in reality life isn’t perfect. Powerful Real Stories is a campaign to show that it’s ok to show the real you and if you’re struggling with mental health there is support available. We took a mindful approach to creating these two films to allow emotional storytelling to come through sensitive and emotive performances filmed cleverly as one continuous take. Whilst our talent spoke directly to camera, we saw their composure and conversation slowly unfilter through VFX to reveal the inconsistencies between filtered lives on social media and people’s daily realities and struggles. Alongside the films, we also created an AR filter for Instagram, championed by micro- influencers who spoke about their experiences with unrealistic expectations on their own platforms.

The Results

• Bupa UK’s most successful online campaign

• 45,000+ visits to mental health support pages

• 8 million completed video views

• 31.1 million impressions across all channels

• 75–80% video completion rate (vs. 65% KPI)

• Campaign extended to above-the-line (ATL) channels

• Secured £3 million in additional marketing investment

Credits:

Creative and Strategy: Paul Reid
Director: Laura Midwinter
Production: Contented Group