L'EAU DE CHRIS

Short List
TitleL'EAU DE CHRIS
BrandCALM
Product/ServiceCAMPAIGN AGAINST LIVING MISERABLY
Category E02. Social Purpose
Entrant BMB London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation BMB London, UNITED KINGDOM
Credits
Name Company Position
Jules Chakley BMB Chief Creative Officer
Simon Hipwell BMB Creative Director
Matt Pam BMB Creative Director
Augustine Cerf BMB Creative
Lauren Peters BMB Creative
Jamie Inman BMB Head of Planning
Ben Clark BMB Account Director

Background

Despite mental health being talked about more, suicide remains the biggest killer of men under 45 years old in the UK. Research commissioned by CALM showed that 84% of men in the UK say they bottle up their emotions. The brief was simple, get young men - a typically difficult to reach audience for the charity - to start talking about mental health issues. The objective was to drive maximum awareness of CALM and provoke a debate. All without being too worthy, as this is when blokes typically switch off and stop listening. We created a fake product to talk about a real issue. Reality star Chris Hughes, launched ‘L’Eau De Chris’, a mineral water infused with his own tears. Stupid, right? With the public and media in a frenzy, he revealed the real message on World Mental Health Day; L’Eau de Chris is ludicrous, don’t bottle up your feelings.

Describe the strategy

The use of celebrity was key to our strategy to drive fame and appeal amongst young men. Chris Hughes was famed in Love Island – the reality TV summer hit – for his physique, but more importantly for shedding a tear and had since talked candidly about his struggles with anxiety. This mix of popularity and press attention, masculinity and openness gave us the ideal candidate to deliver our creative idea. Leveraging Hughes’ massive following on Social channels to seed the activity, meant that we could engage our young male audience on the platforms they were using.

Describe the execution

In the days before World Mental Health Day (10th Oct), Hughes posted a series of teasers on Instagram with the message; ‘Launches 10.10.17’. Then a glossy launch film – an over the top pastiche borrowing cues from the perfume category shot by Rankin –released on 9th Oct, alongside national OOH and Print to advertise the launch of his new project with Topman. All touchpoints pointed to the TOPMAN website where the product was listed as ‘sold out’. On 10th Oct, at a press event streamed live on Facebook, Chris revealed the charity’s message. That day, all campaign creative was swapped out and replaced with the call to action: #DontBottleItUp

List the results

The campaign achieved; 120m Social impressions in the first 48hrs 91 articles of earned media covering the story An 1800% increase of in traffic to the CALM website from 18-24 year olds Suicides prevented by CALM’s webchat doubled in the month of the campaign