As a band, Ward Thomas have used their influence to encourage conversation surrounding the importance of mental health, and their new album, Restless Minds, takes an honest and transparent look at the issue. Sony Music approached us to create a disruptive launch piece to cut through the noise on cluttered newsfeeds and champion the album’s significant messages, and we delivered creative that would go on to pick up Mobile Content Campaign of the Year at the 2019 UK Content Awards.
With a strong focus on a socially conscious, 18-35 audience with an interest in mental health, our campaign sought to be raw and relatable for our core demographic. To bring this strategy to life, we embraced the realness of Restless Minds, and used the No Filter lyrics to hone in on the issues of social media’s impact on our mental health.
The resulting campaign was fully optimised for mobile audiences, using awareness of smartphone functionality on Instagram and Facebook to enable a unique rotating creative. Moreover, we included a level of interactivity to resonate with proactive audiences. By encouraging a small moment of mindfulness amongst viewers, we ensured our message was delivered and remembered.
Restless Minds stomped to the top of the UK Country charts, and has earned 2 million streams since release day – and counting – averaging 51,000 streams a day. Our ads drove a total of 1.1 million impressions across Facebook, Instagram and Instagram Stories, and close to 40,000 viewers watched to the very end – a testament to the creative’s impact on the audience.
And if the album’s chart-topping success and the Story’s performance weren’t enough, we were thrilled to add ‘award-winner’ to the mix, too.