Teen suicide is a major issue in India, and parental pressure to perform well on exams is a contributing factor to this unfortunate reality. Beverage company Mirinda wanted to create a platform that allowed teens to express themselves and to challenge parents be more gracious toward their children during this stressful time. Through traditional and digital media, the brand got over 1.5 million parents to pledge to #ReleaseThePressure.
Objective and Context:
The World Health Organization (WHO) ranked India among top three globally on teen suicide. A leading cause for suicide was pressure about exams. Parents often put pressure on their children to perform well on exams, and Indian society tends to emphasize academic achievement.
Beverage brand Mirinda is known for making stressful situations lighter through play and mischief, and it wanted to use its reputation to start a new conversation about the topic of suicide prevention. The brand would create a campaign to help Indian parents acknowledge their role in contributing to teen stress.
Target Audience:
The campaign’s target audience included male and female teenagers between the ages 15 and 19, as well as the parents of teenagers, males and females between the ages of 35 and 50.
Creative Strategy:
Mirinda spoke to teenagers and learned that many were raised in old fashioned households that placed a high importance on marks. A few of these teens had written letters to their parents expressing their fears and thoughts of suicide, but were too afraid to share them.
Mirinda used this insight to inspire its campaign. The brand would create a platform for teenagers to express themselves and to share their feelings.
Overall Campaign Execution:
The campaign was called #ReleaseThePressure, and it invited teens to write a letter to their parents about their fears regarding exams. To generate awareness of the campaign, the brand created a microsite. On the microsite, there was a number for parents to call and make a pledge to “release the pressure” on their children.
The brand also introduced 120 million bottles into the market with labels that featured letters from real teens urging parents to call and take the pledge.
In the second phase of the campaign, programmatic media buying reinforced the message retargeting those who had interacted with the first phase of the campaign.
Mobile Execution:
Mirinda created a digital video and shared it via social platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. Twitter and YouTube mastheads spread the message about the parental pledge. Influencers helped increase the campaign’s reach. Teen celebrities wrote their own open letters. Famous parents from Bollywood and the sports world spoke out about the campaign. The blogger community and native articles generated awareness, as well.
The campaign reached over 154 million people and delivered 649 million impressions. The short film had over 27.7 million views.
Mirinda had over 1.5 million parents pledge to “release the pressure” and start listening to their children’s concerns. The PR value of the campaign brought in $1.8 million. The conversation around Mirinda was 138 times higher than the nearest beverage brand.
The campaign provoked a conversation, got stakeholders together, and created a space for parents and teens to connect.
