The challenge
We had to appeal to a broad audience of men including fathers, sons, partners, friends, nephews and colleagues and encourage them to strike up a conversation about their mental health and wellbeing. STRYKK is a socially positive brand, it doesn’t shame alcohol consumption or ‘step out of it’s lane’ as a drinks brand. Although STRYKK are a bold and playful brand, working with Movember was their first experience of charity fundraising partnerships. The campaign needed to be engaging and memorable, as well as being fully inclusive and accessible.
The solution
To ensure the campaign concept was fit for purpose, we established research around why men find it difficult to open up. One key learning was that when men are shoulder-to-shoulder rather than face-to-face it becomes easier. So we focused on how we could bring men together this way, enabling conversation to arise naturally. Playing on the concept of a ‘man date’ (a platonic male get-together) and a ‘mandate’ (an official order to do something), The Man Date was born.
We leveraged STRYKK’s brand to create a fresh charity campaign identity and designed a suite of social assets to build social media hype including an Instagram story ‘man date ideas’ filter. We also introduced a competition element so participants had the chance to win top-quality man dates in exchange for each donation, treating them like raffle tickets.