The non-alcoholic drinks brand, STRYKK, was awarded the opportunity to partner with Movember for 2021. The brief was to help them come up with a bold donation-led campaign around the theme of “STRYKK Up A Conversation”. 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.
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 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.
Studio Republic really helped us translate our ideas and passion for Movember into a coherent campaign that could be clearly communicated. Up until this partnership, STRYKK had been a purely commercial brand so leveraging SR’s experience of purpose driven projects was essential in helping us navigate the unique sensitives and challenges these pose.
Stephanie Foxley
Digital Lead at STRYKK
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