OUGD601 - Practical - Initial Ideas

Practical Ideas - Mental Health 

At this point in my research project, it is difficult to tell what my practical outcome could be. With the focus of my research being on persuasion and looking propaganda and how that then relates to advertising and branding, it was clear that branding needs to be a key part of the project as this is how I believe we can get people to understand more about mental health as it needs a solid brand that will be able to lead a campaign, especially one that will create traction.  

1. Poster/print campaign - 

• A campaign that focuses on visualising how mental health affects the individual. 
• As part of a charity 

2. Wolrd Mental Health Day - 

• Using celebrities to help voice their opinions and stories on the subject. 
• Produce an awareness campaign that can be launched on World Mental Health Day
• Create a brand that is either separate from an existing charities core identity. 

3. Meditation App - 

• An app for everyone, create a meditation app that encourages wellbeing to everyone so that we are not just singling out people with mental health 
• This should help to show people how self-heal and therefore talk about how you feel more openly. 
• Could be done in the form of an app or website as this would be able to reach a lot fo the target audience, people always looking for new app especially young people. 

4. Rebrand a current mental health charity - 

• Through some of my research, I found out that Mcmillan cancer research used a rebrand by WOLFF OLINS which helped them to increase awareness and also donations and it is now one of the most known charities in the UK. 
• By rebranding a current mental health charity it should help to change the opinion people have on mental health if it is made approachable to everyone. A fresh new brand should appeal to more people make the issue more relevant to a larger audience. 

5. Targeting depression and anxiety - 

• Two of the most common mental health problems, yet people that don't have these problems understand very little or have warped views which aren't accurate. 
• Create a guide for "healthy" people so that they can be educated, this should also encourage them to then help those who suffer. 
• Editorial (how to guide)  

6. Clothing - 

• Design a brand that focuses on sending positive message about mental health 
• T-shirts, totes, posters and useful objects
• Creating a brand that will focus on mental health has the capacity to reach a lot of people of all ages and this could be done well using social media to aid the message. 

Feedback

The feedback that I got from my ideas has helped to point me in the right direction when discussing with tutors and peers they could see that using a brand to promote mental health awareness would be the best possible way of doing so. When looking at currently mental health charities it seemed that most of the branding surrounding them was a particular style and this could be the reason for people paying less attention to mental health issues. 

The two best ideas from my ideas stage were the Mental Health Awarenesses Day and chairty rebrand as this both focus is on reducing stigma. When discussing the ideas further with my tutor we spoke about how the main fall back around the stigma is people not knowing enough and how could they be given this information in an exciting way that would provoke them to think more about mental health problems.