Situation

New Zealand is in the grips of a youth mental health crisis. One in four young people suffer anxiety. Less than half of those that do, ask for help.

As principal sponsor of mental health charity, Youthline, ASB wanted to increase access to mental health support. But this is not a problem funding alone can solve. The more we advertised Youthline, the more pressure it placed on their call centres and counsellors. Youthline cannot afford to leave any young person on hold.

Brief

ASB wanted to reduce the number of youths that needed to call Youthline. 

Objectives

Create a digital tool that helps youths stop the downward spiral of anxiety. And make sure it reaches as many young New Zealanders as possible.

Idea: Create a song with popstar BENEE that is scientifically designed to help young people with anxiety. 

The song was called “Bagels”. It was produced by BENEE and a team of neuroscientists using musical elements scientifically proven to reduce anxiety.

Insight:

We know listening to music is how many young people find space, and research has shown music can impact anxiety, our emotions, and mood. Young people listen to music more than any other age group, on average streaming music over 2 hours per day. 

Meditation-style songs do exist, but teenagers don’t listen to them. Thus, the primary goal was to harness BENEE’s fandom and launch our anxiety-relieving tool as a pop-culture hit. 

Our research showed that young people spend 8 hours a day on their phones, and an average of two hours a day listening to music. If we were going to help this young audience, we would have to reach them in their world.  

At just 23, BENEE is  NZ’s biggest popstar. An outspoken advocate for mental health, with a huge youth following – she was the perfect partner. So we used Benee’s popularity to successfully launch Bagels like a traditional pop song.  

'Bagels' was a collaboration between New Zealand's biggest pop star, BENEE, and a team of neuroscientists.

The song was produced using musical elements identified by the scientists to reduce anxiety, like the key of C major, a tempo of 60-80 bpm, harmony within the diatonic key and as few dynamic changes as possible. Each part of the song, from the melody, to the subtle message in the lyrics 'You are not alone' was carefully crafted to relax the nervous system, modify brain activity and ease feelings of anxiousness.

It was tested in the largest study ever conducted on the effects of music on anxiety, and was found to outperform all other tracks at reducing anxiety in listeners, leading to it being dubbed 'The most calming song in the world'.

In just two weeks, 'Bagels' reached the top of the NZ singles charts.

To date, it has been streamed 10 million times (our original objective was 2 million).

It has been added to hundreds of 'Chill out' playlists.

The track is also now being used as a therapeutic tool in classrooms and by counsellors across the country.

We set out to achieve 2 million impressions on ASB's owned social media channels. We hit 23 million.

With media coverage both in NZ and globally, the campaign reached an audience of 30 million people.

The project uplifted ASB's corporate reputation score by 9.9pts, higher than their sponsorship of the national rugby team.