M&C Saatchi

Client: yourtown
Product: Kids Helpline
Title: Truth & Loot
Media: Wavemaker
Country: Australia
Date Of Campaign: 18/08/19

Background: In 2019, 60% of all contacts to Kids Helpline were with regards to mental health issues and thoughts of suicide. Despite the increased coverage and awareness around mental health in mainstream media, there still remains a stigma and confusion around the topic. However, research shows that talking (about anything) helps avoid getting to this serious stage. The challenge is getting teens to talk.

Idea: In partnership with Twitch, the #1 live video platform in Australia, we created “Truth N Loot”. It saw 4 influential gamers (Naysy, Chanzes, PandaTV and duo Skill Up and Laymen Gaming) engaged as brand ambassadors of Kids Helpline, and the powerful voices behind seeking help for mental health issues. Over a 4 week period, each gamer hosted a 2-hour live Fortnite stream, during which they spoke about their own personal experiences and struggles with mental health – all while battling live in the most successful game ever created: Fortnite. As the games were played out, teens, distracted by the game and candid conversation, opened up and chatted about their own personal struggles on the chat stream. And when things became too serious, Kids Helpline counsellors stepped in to provide a supporting and reassuring ear. By turning the gaming platform into a social platform we engaged with teens in an unthreatening manner, and made them realise how easy it was to just open up and talk.

Results: With a media budget of just $135k, Truth n Loot delivered: - +26M impressions across platforms - Reached a combined 1.82m people – of this, 780k were young males - 100,000 clicks The 4 Live Fortnite Streams delivered over 243,000 minutes watched, and average brand exposure (average minutes streamed per user) of 6-7 minutes. However, the true success of Truth N Loot is in the four following areas: - Many ‘truths’ were shared in the +6,000 unique chats in the live streams. These ‘truths’ were real, raw and personal, - Of the average 9,000 unique views, an incredible 75% engaged in the live chat, - Kids Helpline saw an increase in live traffic on the days of the live streams, with traffic from the 18-24 year old audience rising by 100% compared to STLY (Note: Traffic from audience under 18 years of age cannot be tracked by Google Analytics), and - Kids Helpline saw a 60% increase in web-traffic from males (vs 31% increase in females) the days of the live streams.