As the largest suicide prevention organization in the United States, we at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention face the everyday challenge of urging society to discuss an often uncomfortable topic. Research has shown that speaking openly about suicide and mental health can in fact lower the rate of suicide, but factors such as past societal stigma and a lingering unease regarding the topic still lead to a general hestitantancy to discuss these issues openly.
We wanted to encourage young adults to have a candid discussion with their friends and family about mental health, a real conversation. That’s why in May of this year — recognized nationally as Mental Health Awareness Month — we at AFSP focused our efforts towards encouraging young people to speak openly and honestly about mental health, by launching our #RealConvo campaign
For the #RealConvo campaign to truly have the desired impact, we needed to both ensure our message reached young people in their daily lives, and that we offered specific and practical guidance on how to begin having these conversations with those close to them. To do this, we employed all the tools Instagram offers to its users.
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We secured a partnership with Instagram as a content partner, and worked with them to source ten different influencers and celebrities from all backgrounds and identities, such as: Donte Colley, Sasha Piertse of Pretty Little Liars, Sydney MacGruder, Vivian Nunez, Jazmine Alcon, Gabby Frost, Jari Jones, Chef Roro, Kelvin Hamilton and Elyse Fox. Instagram hired Lightwork Creative to film these influencers speaking about the importance of having a #RealConvo, in a setting of their choosing. Lightwork Creative then used the video content to shape our Instagram feed as an eyecatching cohesive grid.
We launched our partnership on May 2, with AFSP sharing the videos in a grid format, the featured influencers sharing their own videos, Instagram sharing some selected videos and content from the campaign on their official social media accounts.
Furthermore, we also created an Instagram Story activation asking followers to share their favorite #RealConvo tip, which we then turned into a blog.
Leading up to the launch of our influencer videos with Instagram, we shared our first IGTV video, featuring AFSP Vice President of Programs, Dr. Doreen Marshall, sharing expert advice on how to have a #RealConvo about mental health. We also shared a micro resource guide on our Instagram Story on how to have a #RealConvo, providing accessible expert advice and guidance to implement what we were encouraging.
Through our pitching efforts, we also secured Teen Vogue and SELF Magazine as media partners who would highlight the campaign, from both their website and social media platforms, on launch day. Other prominent media outlets who covered #RealConvo included Seventeen Magazine via Instagram Story, Mashable, and the Washington Post (digital and print).
Our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Christine Moutier, participated in a panel discussion at Instagram’s New York office with Teen Vogue, SELF magazine, and several of the social media influencers featured in our campaign. This was live-streamed through Teen Vogue’s Facebook page.
In addition to the video content, we worked with 20 different artists to create Instagram artwork, depicting #RealConvo through the lense of different artists across the globe. We coordinated with them to share one piece a day throughout the rest of the month, ensuring that our followers would see and engage with a new illustration each day. We also worked separately with another artist to kickstart our AFSP Giphy Channel, with unique #RealConvo and mental health artwork.
In tandem with our social media strategy, we worked with our content experts to create resource guides on how to have a #RealConvo, from different perspectives.
We created a webpage for the public to find all of our shareable content, such as illustrations, Instagram videos, and guides on how to have a #RealConvo. Our Mental Health Month Toolkit provided a singular location for visitors get involved in the AFSP community.
Post-launch, we hosted a #RealConvo Twitter chat with partners to discuss ways on how to have real conversations about mental health. We also held a #RealConvo livestream in partnership with The Mighty and our VP of research.
Overall, our #RealConvo campaign received a tremendous outpouring of support from the online community. Throughout May, our social media accounts were frequently the site of candid and supportive conversations about mental health between family, friends and even complete strangers. As our campaign grew, it reached communities and influencers we hadn’t initially anticipated. Personalities completely unrelated to the campaign began creating their own #RealConvo videos, such as Deepak Chopra, Jay Shetty and Ali Tate Cutler. The Pretty Little Liars Instagram account also shared Sasha’s #RealConvo video, which garnered 669K views and 737 comments, accompanied by an outpouring of support.
Following the launch, San Francisco 49ers' Solomon Thomas and our chief medical officer, Dr. Christine Moutier went on Good Morning Football and had a #RealConvo about mental health. It received 1.1K likes and almost 300 retweets.
Outside of Instagram content, we hosted a #RealConvo Twitter Chat partners which had 50.5M impression, and 2.8K tweets were shared during the chat.
Lastly, our reached was expanded even more by our 85 chapters sharing #RealConvo content with their local communities.
Additional evaluation of success/results:
IGTV Video Views: 4K
Influencer video views on @afspnational: 27,871
Likes on illustrations posts, @afspnational account: 25,021
New Followers in May: 7K
Hashtag use in May: 35,990
Giphy Channel views: 46M views
Webpage toolkit: 9K visits, 25K interactions
