Three Mobile wanted to be known as a brand that is loved by young people for being positive, relatable, accessible and reflective of trends. However, they were challenged by increasing mainstream press coverage of the negative physical and mental health consequences of smartphone overuse. Furthermore, young people were starting to feel more negatively towards their phones - and specifically social media – as a result (Source 1).

Three needed a credible partner to help them combat the negativity and get young people feeling good about their phones again. They approached LADbible Group, one of the world’s largest publishers, who reach two thirds of 18-34 year olds in the UK, to create an ownable online space to tackle the issue head-on.

Three’s research revealed 44% of young people in the UK were posting less on social media. In contrast, LADbible Group reach two thirds of 18–34-year-olds in the UK, and 90% of our audience view our content through their mobiles.

Through LADbible Group’s award-winning social good campaigns, we knew that social media and phones have the power to be used for good. We also knew that influencers and celebrities, popular with our audience, could be leveraged to share a positive message, especially if used to create unusual content.

A/B tests also proved that longform relaxing content with an unusual twist could generate as much newsfeed engagement as fast-paced clickbait. Using these insights, we aimed to create content that could relax and entertain users, and give a twist on relaxing content trends that were already popular with the LADbible community.

For Relaxing Stuff to have a real impact on young people’s mental wellbeing, as well as generating love for Three, LADbible Group understood that this couldn’t be a one-off campaign. We needed to create an always-on year-long partnership, and launch a co-branded social community, that took audiences away from other types of potentially stressful media, to a specially designed relaxing community that targeted social media-savvy 18–34-year-olds.

Relaxing Stuff comprised of newly launched Facebook, Instagram and Giphy accounts, a new website and a supporting Facebook community group. The channel publisher over 1,000 pieces of licensed, original and branded content, curated from a network of the internet’s most relaxing content creators. We also chose to leverage celebrities and influencers beloved by our audience of 18-34 year olds, such as Lewis Capaldi, Gemma Collins, Kurupt FM and Aitch to create viral cultural moments and maximise impact amongst the young target demographic.

Relaxing Stuff delivered oddly satisfying, chilled-out content exactly where it was needed most: straight into the mobile news feeds of young people.

Across the year, it delivered 1,000 pieces of content and 30 original videos, distributed across Facebook and Instagram, that took relaxing internet content trends – such as ASMR, slime and powerwashing videos – and gave them a tongue-in-cheek twist that we knew our young audience enjoyed. Content included Rabbit ASMR, mirror-glazing of bald mens’ heads, metalheads getting kids facepaint, rappers soothingly whispering their tracks, power washing of a builders’ transit van, creating a 74 year-old's man’s dream home in virtual reality and convincing celebrities beloved by our audience – like Lewis Capaldi and Gemma Collins - to experiment with ASMR.

Over the course of the partnership, the Relaxing Stuff community grew to over 300,000 followers across Facebook and Instagram. Crucially, it delivered the equivalent of 115 years of relaxation on Facebook alone – cutting through clickbait to bring moments of peace to social media.

Additional results:

- We achieved a unique reach of 9.5 million of 18-34 year olds [our target audience] on social across the campaign period (FB Creator Studio, March 2020). This is half of LADbible Group’s entire 18-34 year old audience on the platforms.

- Our original branded content had a combined reach of 105.9 million in addition to our curated pieces of content that gained another 94.4 million. Overall, our content has had a combined reach of 200 million globally.

- We shifted consideration for the brand by 14.5% for 18 - 26 years olds in the UK.