Objectives

As a brand that believes every day can be a bit better, Harry’s ultimate goal for this campaign was to bring awareness to mental health issues by supporting organizations that are dedicated to helping veterans get the mental health services they need. With this goal in mind, Harry’s partnered with Headstrong and Stop Soldier Suicide, two organizations that are making an impact in the space, to create a video featuring veterans and their stories. The video amplified the importance of these organizations and highlighted the work they do every day to help veterans struggling with PTSD. Harry’s, Stop Soldier Suicide and Headstrong saw a very real impact: the number of people reaching out for help increased significantly because of the video. 

This initiative was driven by the hard statistics surrounding veterans and mental health: veterans are at a higher risk of completing suicide than peers who have not served in the military, and roughly 20 veterans and one current service member take their own lives every day. 

In addition to creating the video awareness campaign in partnership with Headstrong and Stop Soldier Suicide, Harry’s also donated $250K to each organization for a total investment of $500,000. This donation is part of the 1% of Harry’s sales that are set aside to support organizations that provide help and treatment for those suffering from mental health issues. In a continued effort to better serve guys, Harry’s goal is to help 500K men get access to better mental healthcare by 2021.

Strategy and Execution

Strategy: In a continued effort to support organizations dedicated to men’s mental health, Harry’s partnered with Headstrong and Stop Soldier Suicide to create tools to drive awareness of the work each organization was doing leading up to Veterans Day 2018. “Three Veterans Open Up About PTSD” encouraged those struggling to maintain their mental health to ask for help. Additionally, we wanted this video to act as a catalyst for destigmatizing the conversation around a topic many individuals are afraid to speak out about. 

Implementation: Harry’s worked with Headstrong and Stop Soldier Suicide to ensure they had a strong and accurate understanding of the veteran population, their feelings and their struggles prior to beginning work on the video. 

Through an extensive, and at times emotional, process, we collectively identified veterans who had gone through one of the programs the organizations offer and were also comfortable sharing their stories. Doctors, social workers and staff members from the organizations were intimately involved in connecting us to the right people.  

Harry's creative and marketing teams got to know these veterans by listening to their stories. We spent hours with them, asking about their approach to getting help, the challenge in access, why the VA is an imperfect resource, and why there is a suicide epidemic within their community. When the video was published, it was highly promoted through Harry’s, Headstrong and Stop Soldier Suicide’s social channels to reach as many people as possible. 

Key Features: Harry’s, Headstrong and Stop Soldier Suicide worked with veterans who shared their personal struggles with PTSD in order to emphasize the importance of seeking and getting help. Working closely with veterans and veterans’ organizations gave the campaign the credibility necessary to make a real impact. 

• Miguel Ocegueda: A former combat medic in the US Army who found it impossible to walk away from active duty unscathed. He mentions that as his anxieties grew louder, he found it harder to see one-two months into the future. Today, Miguel is the Program Director at Headstrong and a master’s student at Syracuse University, where he’s working towards his degree in Public Health.
• Elana Duffy: A former counterintelligence agent in the US Army who did not want to leave the service, but was forced to medically retire. Upon her return to civilian life, she struggled to define where she belonged. Though she was struggling mentally, she never wanted to be seen as “weak.” Today, Elana is the founder of Pathfinder Labs, which works to make military veteran transitions into civilian life easier.
• Frank Ellis: After serving for nine years, Frank felt guilty, because while he knew he was struggling, he had no superficial injuries, and knew there were other veterans who weren’t as fortunate. After leaving the service, Frank was diagnosed with PTSD and a traumatic brain injury. Frank has a service dog that has been helpful in his treatment and transition. When he’s not with his family, he enjoys caring for his horses and working on his motorcycle. 

Results

The campaign succeeded in reaching those in need of help. Headstrong experienced an 160% uptick in inbound requests, and Stop Soldier Suicide experienced an 81% increase in people reaching out for help. This increased engagement proved that we achieved the joint goal of driving awareness to these organizations, and their work.

For context, for every soldier lost in combat, 25-30 take their own lives at home. When it comes to helping those in need, Stop Soldier Suicide’s cost per veteran is about $1,600 and Headstrong’s is about $5K. With Harry’s donation of 500K, the organizations were able to provide quality mental health care for 206 veterans, bringing Harry’s closer to our goal of helping 500K men receive better mental health care by 2021. 

In addition to the positive impact of our donation, please see additional quantitative post-campaign results below:

Headstrong

• In the six weeks after the campaign, 2.5x more people reached out for help than in the previous year, and the Headstrong website had 65.8% more traffic than the average 10 weeks prior to the campaign.
• Fundraising amounts were higher than the previous Veterans day. 

Stop Soldier Suicide:

• In the six weeks after the campaign, 5x more people reached out to SSS for help than in the previous year, and the SSS website had 262% more traffic than the average 10 weeks prior to the campaign.
• Average web donations doubled the week after the video went live.
• Fundraising amounts were higher than the previous Veterans day. 

Media