The Mental Health Association (MHA) of Essex and Morris Counties
Challenge
- Increase awareness of suicide prevention resources offered by MHA
- Develop content for teens with authentic and relatable messaging
- Create trust with the audience to engage them on sensitive topics
Goals
- Significantly grow MHA’s reach
- Drive more conversations about mental health and reduce stigma around the topic of suicide prevention
Our Approach
- We created a visual design strategy that would not only be engaging but also foster trust with the audience
- The strategy also focused on creating shareable ads that our audience would repost to expand our reach
![](https://sparkgrowth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/MHA_full-color-notag.png)
“I want people to know that what MHA says is true… mental illness is real, but more importantly, recovery is possible. I am living proof.”
— Anonymous MHA Member
The Results
We saw an increase in website registrations and contacts, both of which were not the primary goal of the campaign, but the impressive results illustrated the effectiveness of our advertising program.
Given the limited budget, we were able to make each marketing dollar go further in order to get results that our clients were very happy with.
![](https://sparkgrowth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/BG-–-1-1-200x200.png)
2021 Social Winners
Campaigns & Series-Public Service & Activism
![](https://sparkgrowth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/BG-2-200x200.png)
The 2021 American Business Awards
Youth Marketing Campaign of the Year
Results compared to MHA’s previous marketing efforts
35%↑
decrease in Cost per Reaction
1795%↑
increase in the Number of Posts saved
95%↑
decrease in Cost per Post Save
33%↑
decrease in Cost per Link Click
Visual Strategy
Our creative concepts used a combination of illustrated visuals, real-life photography, and videos to tell a story from a variety of perspectives.
For the youth audience, it was clear that ad visuals needed to stand out but remain relatable. With a goal to create more authentic messaging for struggling teens, our “texting videos” series was a top-performing format.