NHS 111 Mental Health Awareness

The South London Mental Health and Community Partnership (SLP) is a collaboration between three NHS mental health trusts: Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust. Together, they work to deliver high-quality, specialist mental health services across south London, pooling resources, expertise, and experience to provide the best possible care. The partnership focuses on innovation, improving clinical outcomes, and ensuring that mental health services meet the needs of local communities.

As an experienced NHS marketing agency, we understand the importance of effectively communicating mental health initiatives to ensure they reach those who need them most. By working together, the South London Mental Health and Community Partnership aims to enhance patient care by ensuring more effective and efficient services. The partnership supports initiatives across a range of mental health services, from inpatient care to community-based support, addressing areas such as acute mental health, child and adolescent services, and specialist care. Through collaboration, the SLP is committed to improving mental health outcomes for residents of south London and setting a benchmark for mental health care across the UK.

Raise awareness and promote the NHS 111 MH helpline across the South London population

Use available data to target the most underserved population cohorts

Create positive perception of the service amongst the public

Drive increased appropriate use of the NHS 111 MH number by all target audiences

Develop creative methods to measure campaign effectiveness while maintaining a strong commitment to end-user privacy

If you live in South London and need to speak to a mental health professional urgently, please call us on 111 and select the mental health option

If you are experiencing something that makes you feel unsafe, distressed, or worried about your mental health, please call your local crisis service here in South London by calling 111 and selecting the mental health option

We have specially trained NHS mental health specialists ready to listen, support and help you

You’re not alone – hundreds of people have used the NHS 111 MH service, which has helped them at their time of greatest need with their mental health

If you are generally concerned about your mental health and well-being but don’t feel that you need urgent or immediate help, please contact your GP or visit the NHS website to find out about support you can get

If you’re already in contact with NHS mental health services, please use the contact details they have given you for immediate support. If you can’t get hold of someone but need urgent help please call 111

This is a special additional service launched by the NHS to help local people who need urgent and crisis mental health support get the right care and support, when they need it

As the primary goal of this campaign is to raise awareness about the NHS 111 Mental Health services, our strategy focused on leveraging platforms that offer both extensive reach and cost-efficiency. We selected YouTube and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) as our key channels, as they provide the highest audience reach at the lowest cost per impression.

YouTube

YouTube is an ideal platform for delivering our message due to its unique ability to capture and hold the attention of engaged users. By strategically placing our ads within the user experience, we can effectively interrupt with our message while sound is on, ensuring that the content is noticed and heard. This approach allows us to convey the importance of NHS 111 Mental Health services in a compelling and memorable way.

Meta (Facebook & Instagram)

Meta platforms, being inherently social and interactive, are perfect for fostering engagement with our target audience. Users on these platforms are already primed to interact with content, making it an ideal space for driving awareness and encouraging deeper connections with our message. By using a mix of video and static ads across Facebook and Instagram, we can maximise our reach while also engaging users who are likely to take action—whether that’s clicking on an ad, sharing it, or seeking more information.

Facebook & Instagram

For our NHS 111 Mental Health Awareness campaign, we executed a multi-faceted Meta strategy designed to maximise reach, engagement, and impact. Our approach was carefully structured to target users most likely to resonate with the campaign’s message, ensuring effective use of resources and broad awareness.

Campaign Testing and Insights

We began with two small-scale campaigns to test our creative assets and messaging rationale. These initial campaigns focused on measuring user engagement through clicks on ads, providing valuable insights into which creative elements were most effective. Leveraging the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), we strategically ran one campaign in the least deprived decile and another in the most deprived decile—polar opposite environments. This allowed us to assess the performance of our creatives across diverse socioeconomic landscapes. Interestingly, some creative assets demonstrated strong performance in both contexts, highlighting their broad appeal and effectiveness.

Catch-All Campaign for Broad Reach

To ensure widespread awareness, we implemented a broad “catch-all” campaign aimed at reaching as many users as possible within South London at the lowest cost. This campaign acted as a scout, identifying users who interacted with our ads and serving as a foundation for our more targeted engagement campaigns. By capturing a wide audience, we were able to build a robust pool of potential users to retarget with more specific messaging.

Instagram-Specific Video Campaign

Recognising the power of visual content on Instagram, we launched a dedicated video campaign using cost-effective footage captured onsite at the 111 Mental Health department. This campaign focused on maximising reach across all Instagram users, ensuring that the message of available mental health support through NHS 111 was widely disseminated.

Leveraging Machine Learning for Targeted Engagement

To optimise engagement and ensure that our message reached those who would find the NHS 111 service most useful, we ran two targeted campaigns across both Instagram and Facebook. One campaign featured a 29-second video, specifically targeting users likely to watch the entire video, thus driving deeper engagement. The other campaign utilised static image ads, focusing on users most likely to interact through comments, shares, likes, or clicks. These campaigns harnessed the power of machine learning, using data-driven insights to identify and reach the most relevant users.

Supporting the NHS to Reduce Health Inequality

In alignment with the NHS’s broader mission to reduce health inequalities, we allocated a portion of our budget to target users in the highest decile of the IMD index and those who have recently migrated to the UK. This targeted approach ensured that our campaign reached communities that may benefit most from mental health support services.

For the YouTube component of our NHS 111 Mental Health Awareness campaign, we designed our approach to maximise both reach and effectiveness, taking into account the unique characteristics of the platform.

Skippable Ads with Immediate Impact

Given that YouTube ads are skippable after the first five seconds, we ensured that the most vital information was conveyed right at the start. This strategy guaranteed that even if users chose to skip the ad, they would still be exposed to the core message of our campaign—raising awareness about the NHS 111 Mental Health services.

Repurposing Content for YouTube Shorts

In addition to standard YouTube ads, we repurposed our Instagram video ads for YouTube Shorts. This allowed us to extend our reach to users who engage more with short-form content, ensuring that our message was delivered across different viewing preferences and habits.

Broad Reach Campaign

Our initial campaign was a broad “catch-all” effort aimed at reaching as many users as possible. This approach allowed us to introduce the NHS 111 Mental Health services to a wide audience, establishing a strong foundation for more targeted efforts.

Targeted Campaigns for Health Equity

Recognising the importance of addressing health inequalities, we allocated additional budget to target areas identified by the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). Furthermore, by analysing past NHS 111 mental health call data, we identified peak times when calls were more frequent. We then scheduled our ads to run during these critical periods, ensuring that our message reached those most likely to need mental health support at the moments when they were most engaged.

The campaigns demonstrated cost-efficiency and effective targeting, with key insights gained that will inform future marketing efforts. The strategic use of machine learning, targeted messaging, and optimised scheduling played a crucial role of the impact of the NHS 111 Mental Health Awareness campaign.

Campaign Reach and Engagement

Across all Meta and YouTube campaigns, we successfully reached a combined total of 1,896,000 users. This extensive reach significantly contributed to raising awareness of NHS 111 Mental Health services across South London.

The campaigns collectively generated a high level of engagement, including clicks, likes, shares, comments, and video views. These engagements are detailed in accompanying tables, highlighting the effectiveness of our strategies across different platforms.

Cost Efficiency

For YouTube, the average cost per view (CPV) was notably low, at £0.008.
The Meta campaigns were similarly efficient, leveraging a well-allocated budget to achieve significant reach and engagement without exceeding planned expenditures.
All campaigns adhered to their expected budgets, with no overages or shortfalls, ensuring optimal use of available resources.

Awareness

The campaigns collectively contributed to a noticeable increase in awareness of NHS 111 Mental Health services. User interactions suggested a positive shift in how the service is perceived, though further analysis could help identify specific behavior changes.

Challenges

While the overall performance was strong, challenges such as lower engagement among certain demographics (e.g., recent migrants) highlighted areas for future improvement. Additionally, optimising and testing new video content for Instagram may enhance full-view rates.