Tim Bergling’s (Avicii) passing came as a shock to many. After his passing, Tim’s parents created the Tim Bergling Foundation, as an initiative to raise awareness around mental illness.

Save the Children and the Tim Bergling Foundation joined forces in a partnership to reach more people suffering from mental illness. This is a new territory for Save the Children to step into, but one that became imperial for us to be involved in.

With the use of a new media platform we organically engaged influencers in raising the issue of mental illness. And with Tim Bergling’s partnership we aimed to drive awareness around a hard topic in the safe space of a music platform and through influential loud voices.

Although mental illness is common, it is still difficult to talk about. We decided to reach a younger audience in a safe environment where they spend a lot of time – Spotify.

In a synchronized hack, Sweden’s pop-elite such as Benjamin Ingrosso, Tove Lo, Alesso and Loreen transformed their Spotify Canvases on their hit songs to a new channel, in order to spread the important messaging of Save the Children directly to reach those who need it the most; signaling that they are not alone in their struggle.

With the help of artists and influencers we hacked Spotify canvases and shared the messages across social media, for a higher chance of starting real conversation, shining light on mental health.

Until now, Spotify Canvases have been used to enhance album art or show snippets of videos. In our campaign “Canvases for the Children” we used this platform in a new way.

Research clearly shows how mental illness is a hidden epidemic, with 2 in 3 adolescents in Sweden experiencing anxiety and worry. The statistics show the pressing issue of mental health, however, because of the stigmatization around the issue, it remains a challenge to get a conversation going to create change.

The media choice of Spotify was a way to use a new platform to engage more people with influential accounts and personalities. Not only did the Spotify hack honor and connect to Tim’s legacy as a musician, but it let us organically engage Swedish influencers who respected Tim as an artist and friend.

When Tim Bergling passed away, the Tim Bergling Foundation quickly became an important initiative in Sweden, receiving lots of PR and Save the Children’s partnership with them was a way to engage more people with powerful platforms to raise the awareness around our work for mental health.

The campaign launched April 2021 and ran for four weeks. The creative work was inspired by young people’s experience of mental health and how they had described it to psychologists with Save the Children. A lot of young people have strong visual depictions of their experiences with mental illness — from feeling a black hole in their stomach to having their body turn into spaghetti. We used these depictions and dramatized them through illustrations on Spotify Canvases. Each animation ends with a symbolic helping hand from Save the Children.

For production, we used different illustrators to capture various emotional and physical experiences. Our influencers then chose the illustrations that resonated with them the most.

In addition to the Spotify activation, the campaign was brought to life on TV, online, social media, and OOH in Sweden. Testimonies from young people were used for messaging to create connection and open up conversation.

We saw incredible results that further strengthened our continuous work to help children in need:

- Social reach was +2000% the first week of the campaign.

- 75% of the younger target audience viewed the campaign as relevant and had a significantly higher liking compared to other targets.

- Brand preference increased with 66% since the start of the partnership.