2024

Oxfordshire Mind Festive Fears Campaign

Oxfordshire Mind is a regional branch of the leading mental health charity Mind. Offering vital mental health support across Oxfordshire and Berkshire West, the charity reached out to Pic PR for its support in developing a Christmas fundraising campaign set to tackle the ever-growing mental health crisis – particularly among young adults during the festive period.

A central crux of the campaign centred on raising awareness at a regional level about the waiting list for NHS mental health services, which, in some instances, can be as high as five years.

Oxfordshire Mind acts as a vital support function alongside the efforts of the NHS, and the charity wanted to highlight its services across the county, while driving essential fundraising support.

Solution

Research by Oxfordshire Mind highlighted how festive gatherings can worsen isolation and anxiety in young adults when proper mental health support isn't available.

A mental health forum with over 40 young people from Berkshire West informed our campaign messaging, revealing significant gaps between young people's needs and adults' understanding – alongside worries about five-year NHS waiting times. We developed "Festive Fears," using Christmas as context to spotlight young people's mental health struggles whilst emphasising the lengthy NHS waiting periods.

Presenting Oxfordshire Mind with several concepts focused on these waiting lists, the standout approach centred on the question "Where do you see yourself in five years?" – highlighting the consequences of delayed care.

From here, we built a structured campaign featuring both a short film and a conversation guide to 'Mindful Talk', which was created with Oxfordshire youth to help adults support young people during festive events.

The guide offered practical advice for making social interactions uplifting rather than stressful. We filmed during summer, planning distribution through PR, social media and community engagement as we entered the early Christmas period. The outreach strategy encompassed four phases: campaign launch, mindful talk guide release, pre-Christmas support push and New Year results sharing to boost donations.