D&AD Studio Brief Runner Up
BRIEF
Help giffgaff enable their community members to support each other’s mental well-being, utilizing their existing community on giffgaff forums
INSIGHT
Spending at least 5.8 hours a month helping others makes you a happier person.
IDEA
Flip the idea of “me time” on its head and show people that supporting others’ mental wellbeing supports your own through a digital and OOH campaign.
ROLE
Art Director, Strategist, Designer, Animator, Copy Writer
"When we think of “Me-time” (a time to rejuvenate and recharge yourself), we imagine drinking a glass of wine on the couch, staring at one of our screens. And sometimes, that can lead us to feel just a bit more empty, just a bit more unfulfilled. What if “Me-time” became “We-Time”? A time to build your community brick by brick, to inspire and encourage."
THE THOUGHT PROCESS
To get a better understanding of who exactly we were talking to, we took a deep dive into the community forum to experience this empathy and mutual giving first hand. We put a random selection of forum messages into a word cloud, and it showed us which words and phrases came up the most.
We wondered, how many members knew that giving to and supporting others was giving to themselves?
A recent five-year study from the University of Notre Dame surveyed 2,000 Americans and found that those who described themselves as “very happy” volunteered at least 5.8 hours per month. It’s because regularly talking and listening to others helps to put your own problems into perspective. It increases happiness, confidence, mental sharpness and forms a strong sense of belonging.
To raise awareness about the impact of we time, our campaign would replicate traditional surface-level “Me Time” ideals and show how they can fall a bit flat. We plan to do this by using sound and lengthy pauses to emphasize that sometimes, a few hundred dollars spent on candles isn’t the answer. But spending a few hours a month connecting with members of your community could be the answer you’re looking for.
EXECUTION
Around the nation, we’ll host pop-up We time stands to collect real-life examples and stories about times when people helped others, and how that helped them. We want members to see the value of the gift of stories, knowledge, and advice in a community, so we’ll reward them with giffgaff goodies for sharing.
We will then turn these stories into an inspirational community thread for members to refer to and learn from, giving them examples of how they can help other giffgaffers, and in turn, help themselves.
Within the Community, we will demonstrate that helping others out - whether it’s answering a techy question or giving a bit of life advice - benefits them both mentally and in the form of giffgaff goodies too.
We have created the We time tracker, which tallies up the amount of time members spend helping others out. As members spend time writing out advice and sending kind messages, their progress bar rises.