This year, one in four of us will be held back by mental health problems. Wellcome is one of the world’s biggest funders of scientific research around mental health, committed to £200m over the coming years. It also funds creative communications that support work, through the Mindscapes programme.

I Hope This Helps will be a groundbreaking crowdsourced feature film about mental health, generated entirely from footage filmed and donated by members of the public. It is developed by the creators of Life in a Day.

By giving people a platform to share their stories, the film aims to foster a sense of community and understanding, breaking the stigma that so often surrounds mental health issues, and inspiring new research into things that could help people.

We created the brand and assets for the all important callout marketing campaign, encouraging people worldwide to participate in making the film, and share their personal stories of what life looks like to them, and how they cope.

In order to craft a powerful documentary - one that’s global, fearless and inspiring - the production needs hundreds of hours of raw footage filmed by members of the public around the globe about their own mental health. The callout for footage needed to be driven by a compelling, clear, and sensitive marketing campaign. 

Flying Object were tasked with developing the callout campaign’s public face - a distinctive brand identity, campaign creative content and user journey.

We faced a complex communication challenge: conveying the project's purpose, significance, and call-to-action in a manner sensitive to the subject matter while simultaneously reflecting the project's aspirations. We aimed to convey the following attributes:

• Globalness Showcasing the project's worldwide scope through diverse imagery.
• Cinematic Clearly presenting this as an epic, crowdsourced film project.
• Optimistic Acknowledging the gravity of mental health issues while emphasising the potential for positive change.
• Unifying Ensuring the project appeals to a mainstream audience and promotes inclusivity.
• Credibility That comes from the filmmakers, and from Wellcome’s desire to learn from those with mental health difficulties.

Brand Strategy, Identity and Website

In collaboration with the film's producer, we devised a creative strategy for the callout campaign, defining its mission, values, and tone of voice. The central visual concept of the brand identity involved embedding the film's title - "I Hope This Helps" - within user-generated footage to emphasise the potential impact of everyday contributions.

We extended this design concept to the website, and crafted copy that captured the project's ambition and provided clear instructions for participation.

Video

In addition to a callout video created by Empire, we produced a companion video featuring the film’s directors. 

The goal of this videos is twofold:

1. Participating in a film of this nature is a very vulnerable thing to do. The video had to start creating a trusting relationship between the filmmakers and the participants.
2. This is also the opportunity for the directors to explain the kind of footage they want, and to provide tips for creating the most compelling footage.

As well as the full length video, we created cutdowns in a variety of formats, to be used as part of the wider media campaign.

This project was made possible through the collaborative efforts of a multi-agency team, including media strategy from We Grow Start Ups, trailer production by Empire, and technical development from Four.

The callout launched in Spring 2023 and is ongoing. The feature film launch is scheduled for 2024.