Loneliness can strike anyone, anywhere. From young to old. From Friday nights to pub nights out. Alone in a waiting room or surrounded on the tube. But no matter where, when, or who loneliness strikes, there's often one thing that can help — a voice.

To mark the theme of 'Loneliness' for this year's Mental Health Awareness Week, ITV launched the next iteration of the UK's most recognised mental health campaign, Britain Get Talking, supported by Mind and YoungMinds. The new campaign,' Voices Against Loneliness', encouraged the nation to send a voice note and help beat loneliness. Voice notes are an easy way to reach out and let someone know you're thinking of them - and you can record them just about anywhere.

ITV flooded London — the loneliest city in the UK according to research commissioned by the Greater London Authority — with voice notes from ITV talent, showing that anyone can be affected by loneliness and that anyone can help. From advice on how to reach out to struggling friends from Phillip Schofield to Laura Whitmore's top-tips on pulling someone for a chat, the voice notes encouraged everyone to stop and think about those in their lives who could do with it a check-in from a familiar voice.

The voice notes were placed via stickers providing a barcode in locations that aimed to disrupt people in moments when they may have the time to reach out to someone, from backseats in cabs, pizza boxes, beer mats in pubs, coffee shops and bus stops. Showing that no matter where you are or who you are, there's always a voice in your corner.

For Mental Health Awareness Week, Britain Get Talking wanted to strike at a major mental health issue: loneliness.

Most brand and charity comms about loneliness focus on older people, living alone, or in nursing homes (e.g. Cadbury)

But the truth is that loneliness can strike anyone, anywhere. From young to old. It can hit even the most liveliest, loudest looking people, and it can hit even in the liveliest places - a London pub can be as lonely as a nursing home.

This means that no matter who you are, there’s probably someone you know who’s lonely - who’s desperate to hear your voice.

ITV flooded London — the loneliest city in the UK according to research commissioned by the Greater London Authority — with voice notes from ITV talent, showing that anyone can be affected by loneliness and that anyone can help. The voice notes were placed via stickers providing a barcode in locations that aimed to disrupt people in moments when they may have the time to reach out to someone, from backseats in cabs, pizza boxes, beer mats in pubs, coffee shops and bus stops. Showing that no matter where you are or who you are, there's always a voice in your corner.

The public could access the voice notes by simply scanning the barcode on the sticker to listen via their mobile phone. Along with the voice notes, a webpage was also set up that contained tips about connecting to others and other vital information.

11,000 people engaged with our mental health platform, leading to a 109x increase over usual. AND it had a broader impact: our tracking shows that 832,000 people took action or had a conversation as a result.