The mental health crisis in the UK has become increasingly acute in recent years; depression rates have more than doubled throughout the recent Coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, mental health has remained a key focus for ITV, which seeks to put their power of TV and broadcasting behind behaviour change campaigns that make a real difference in the way we look after our mental health.

To continue with this initiative, ITV interrupted Saturday night TV, reaching 5.2 million viewers, with the first-ever text interview. The awkward and uncomfortable moments demonstrated through the text interview aimed to show the importance of having better quality conversations. The purposefully awkward interview with Sir Mo Farah was conducted entirely by text to remind the public to have more meaningful conversations with one another. The Britain Get Talking campaign included an online chat show series and disruptive print.

ITV interrupted 5.2 million viewers during Saturday night TV with the first-ever text interview. The purposefully awkward and uncomfortable moment showed the importance of having better quality conversations and marked the return of the broadcaster's renowned mental health initiative Britain Get Talking.

To encourage better conversations with disruptive reminders, we created a powerful suite of print. Pairing clever copy with manipulated everyday objects, from a scrunched up receipt to a car parking ticket. Conversations can be hard, but the simplest of activities can go a long way in helping create the perfect time to open up and talk to each other properly.

We also created a chat show series with UK talent such as musician Anne-Marie, radio DJ Roman Kemp and presenter Alex Beresford. This online series dived deeper into overcoming barriers and useful techniques for having better quality conversations through real experiences shared by the celebrity guests.

ITV decided to make an ambitious commitment to get 10 million people to take action to improve their mental and physical health by 2023. As a result, mental health has remained a key focus for ITV, who seek to put the power of TV behind behaviour change campaigns that make a real difference to how we all take action to look after our wellbeing.

Britain Get Talking is the UK’s most recognised mental health campaign. A big part of this is down to how we have always been disruptive with our message, whether that’s stopping live TV, doing a text only interview or press ads that look like the detritus of a day out rather than normal advertising. It’s easy to hide from hard conversations, so the reminders to have them need to be surprising.

The campaign launched with the text moment on air and followed with a month of activity including print, online content and social. Including the ‘How to Chat Show’ series playing out on-air, social as well as ITV’s VOD service ITVHub - interrupting viewers with meaningful conversations about useful advice and techniques in creating better conversations with those around you to improve your mental wellbeing.

Britain Get Talking launched in 2019 as part of ITV’s ongoing objective to encourage 10 million people to take action and improve their mental or physical health by 2023. When the pandemic hit, ITV continuously ran campaigns around mental wellbeing and put Britain Get Talking back at the heart of the channel.

Since Britain Get Talking launched just over two years ago, it has encouraged the UK to take over 100 million meaningful actions to improve their mental wellbeing. And last year the campaign also raised £1.4 million to support mental health charity helplines, including donations from the Department of Health and Social Care.

Britain Get Talking continues to be the UK’s most recognised mental health campaign.