Awareness of a problem might sometimes be enough to solve the problem. But not when the problem is depression. People experiencing depression have very low motivation, plus social isolation and stigma make them reluctant to seek help.

This is the story of an advertising campaign that goes far beyond driving awareness. This campaign provides its audience with real outcomes; 90% of people who complete The Journal achieve a medically significant improvement in their condition

In 2010, The Journal set out to deliver self-help for depression in a unique way that would inspire people to practice the skills they need to recover.

Read on to learn how we repositioned an All Black sporting hero from empathetic celebrity on TV, to a personal self-help coach online.

We built The Journal – an online programme where JK inspires people to practice self-help skills. It is a secure section of the depression.org.nz website. This has been running since June 2010.

JK translates the technical details from medical experts into his own language, and shares his personal experience before telling the user what to do. Balancing likability and authority keeps our depressed, distracted audience engaged.

A TV commercial was also created to inspire our unmotivated audience to sign up to The Journal. JK uses a sporting analogy to explain that having a plan helped him get through depression, and that at depression.org.nz he can help you make your own plan to get through depression too. Three variations of the TV commercial have been running, unchanged since June 2010.

Online banners incorporating imagery from the TV commercial were developed to prompt click through to depression.org.nz directly. These have been running since June 2010.

Over 3 years this campaign has persuaded more than 1.2m people to seek information from depression.org.nz

This campaign has sustained an average of 900 new people per month signing up to The Journal. That means every month for 3 years we exceeded our original monthly target by 400 users.

83% of people who complete The Journal achieve a medically significant improvement in their condition. This is measured by a clinically approved test called the PHQ9 score, which was built in to The Journal online programme.

Because of the sustained success of The Journal, the average cost per user to The Government is now just 14% of what it used to cost per patient to subsidise professional doctors fees and medication for depression.