Some great brand activations from this World Mental Health Day

10th October. World Mental Health Day. A moment for all of us to take stock, a reminder to check in on our loved ones, and an opportunity to pledge action for the year to come.

This World Mental Health Day saw companies marking the day with campaigns and new announcements. From announcing comprehensive, holistic workplace mental health programmes, to philanthropic gifts, and announcing new partnerships with charities who are working so hard to address the global mental health crisis, it was heartening to see new commitments made by businesses around the world.

Below are some of the best business initiatives and announcements that stood out to me.

Do you have any to add?

1. Maybelline Brave Together

Maybelline announced the launch of their Brave Together campaign , a dedicated space on their website for learning more about common mental health disorders, breaking down stigma and discovering resources.?

Elyse Fox, mental health campaigner and founder of Sad Girls Club launched the global initiative through a video on Maybelline’s instagram. In partnership with their community of mental health experts, the beauty brand has created support tools to help those living with anxiety & depression and for those who want to support their loved ones. In addition, Maybelline have committed to raising $10m and supporting 1 million conversations in 5 years, and want to help destigmatise anxiety and depression.

2. Innocent smoothies?

British smoothie brand, Innocent, is repeatedly voted as one of the best companies to work for in Europe. Their “Fruity Towers” office has an incredibly well thought out and comprehensive mental health at work programme. You can see more through this engaging instagram post on Sunday.? Having such a strong internal starting point places Innocent in a strong position to continue to push for better mental health across the world. I would love to see them build on their brilliant work to create a holistic approach to mental health that goes beyond workplace mental health in the years to come.?

3. kate spade new york

kate spade new york’s social impact mission is to empower women and girls around the world by putting mental health at the heart of their work.

Although women’s empowerment has been a priority for kate spade new york for over a decade their commitment to put mental health at the heart of women’s empowerment is powerful. The brand is also partnering with brilliant grass roots organisations around the world to provide 100,000 women and girls with direct mental health support and resources by 2025.

This year's World Mental Health Day saw the famous lifestyle fashion brand inspire customers and followers by sharing quotes from their partners and mental health advocates around the world.?

kate spade new york and other prominent mental health funders have also shared some of the organisations they work with on this new website , which was launched on World Mental Health Day featuring organisations providing mental health support for vulnerable communities around the world.

4. Cadbury Bournvita

The #GetTheMessage campaign draws you in with two beautiful films of two children talking about their mental health. The films segue into a personalized bot-based interaction with the viewer - where they are then provided with resources to sensitively handle the growing mental and emotional challenges that children face, aiming to help parents learn more about how to sensitively approach children's mental health.

Cadbury Bournvita has partnered with the MINDS foundation, and produced a dedicated website www.mannkitayyari.in and a 24/7 toll-free helpline for parents. Through this powerful partnership with Cadbury Bournvita, MINDS have been able to curate their years of evidence-backed mental health research and expertise into easy to understand, interactive and accessible resources for parents and make it available across the whole of India.?

5. SnapChat Club Unity

Snapchat used World Mental Health Day to launch a new multi-year initiative in partnership with Active Minds - Club Unity ’. The level of commitment demonstrated here is heartening, partnering with a high impact and well respected organisation to expand their reach into underserved communities who have been particularly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As part of our inaugural year of Club Unity, we have begun a multi-year partnership with Active Minds, a mental health organization for students and young adults with a network of more than 800 campus chapters at colleges, universities, and high schools nationwide. Our partnership will support the expansion of Active Minds chapters at community colleges, HBCUs, and high-schools with the goal of reaching a larger number of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ students.”

It is especially reassuring to see a social media company take on this initiative as there is a huge amount of research showing the damage that social media can have on teenager’s mental health. Snapchat caters for primarily young people, (reaching 90% of 13-24 years olds in the US) whose mental health and lives have been massively impacted throughout the pandemic.

6. Harry’s ??

Harry's has a long standing commitment to mental health having donated over $5M to men's mental health to date, and every year they set aside 1% of their sales to donate to charitable organisations that share our ambition to bring quality mental health care to men everywhere.?

In July, men’s grooming company Harry’s announced the Open Minds initiative -? a huge $5 million grant opportunity for one nonprofit with a big idea to change the state of mental health in the U.S.?

Fast forward to October 10th, and Harry’s has shared their top five finalists: BEAM, the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation, Futures Without Violence/National Council for Mental Wellbeing/Big Brothers Big Sisters in partnership, NAMI, and Vibrant Health.? Each of these charities have submitted innovative ideas to fund; BEAM would use the grant to develop a student loan relief fund to support black mental health professionals; the? Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation would equip black barbershops across the US with the tools to provide culturally sensitive mental health support; and Vibrant Health would create an AI driven suite of mental health resources for BIPOC first responders.?

In addition, the UK Harry’s have also teamed up with Shout and TrimIt to open up the conversation about mental health in barbershops, and train barbers to be able to have initial conversations with clients about their mental health.??

It is heartening to see these global companies take mental health seriously and publicly share their commitment.

However, I was surprised by how few and far between these kinds of commitments were, especially from larger global businesses in light of the growing global conversation on mental health. 

I hope that in years to come we are flooded with all companies increasing their commitment to mental health - both on World Mental Health Day and every day.  And, that these commitments continue to grow not only in number but in scope across the whole of a business - including more mentally healthy products, internal workplace mental health commitments, improved organisational policies, new corporate philanthropy announcements to support civil society, and using their power as advocates for even greater change. 

I call these the 6 P's; People, Policies, Products, Promotion, Philanthropy and Power.  Commitment is needed across all areas of a business for an organisation to be mentally healthy. I'm hopeful there will be even more organisations that will follow the lead of those who are stepping into this important issue, and will continue to celebrate those that do!