In April, we were excited to learn that we’d been nominated for the first-ever Head First Award by ITV. This is part of an industry initiative aimed at promoting mental well-being and encouraging positive changes among advertisers.
Shockingly, over three-quarters* of men experience mental health symptoms, and the suicide rate is exceptionally high among farmers and construction workers—groups that make up a large part of Isuzu’s customer base. This, and the fact that Isuzu UK has a strong history of building long-term partnerships, made them the perfect partner to try to encourage everyone to talk more openly about mental well-being.
Our idea hinged on the idea that difficult conversations are often easier side-by-side. With research indicating that 1 in 8 Brits prefers to have difficult conversations in a vehicle**, we decided to use the Isuzu D-Max to facilitate these discussions, creating a short film to try to encourage people to talk about the tricky things #SidebySide and remove the stigma surrounding mental health.
Since then, we’ve learned that the £1 million media award has been granted to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), demonstrating the quality of the organisations involved in this initiative.
While, of course, we’d have been over the moon for our concept for Isuzu UK to have been chosen, getting to this point from 70 entries is a massive achievement. ITV expressed their love for our idea, acknowledged our passion, and understood our insight, which felt amazing!
Where do we go from here? Well, we think this is an idea with legs, as do Isuzu UK…so watch this space to see where we take it!
*Priory Group research
** Aviva Censuswide research Jan 2022