We’re at a monthly meeting of a “Men’s Table” men’s group and can hear the background noise of a bunch of men talking to each other around a table. Close to mic we hear a gruff, rural Australian sounding man - Jack, talking with another guy - Shane who asks him “All good with you?”. Jack responds with the standard Aussie male response of “all good, all good”. But then, we shift from Jack’s outer voice to go inside his head and hear his inner voice that reveals that far from “all good” he’s struggling with the pressures of making ends meet on his family farm. As he gets towards the end of his stress riddled monologue, his inner voice finds its way out and he shares his concerns with Shane, who is reassuring and supportive in response. A VO then delivers the end line: Let your inner voice out.

We’re at a monthly meeting of a “Men’s Table” men’s group and can hear the background noise of a bunch of men talking to each other around a table. Close to mic we hear a gruff, rural Australian sounding man - Jack, talking with another guy - Shane who asks him “All good with you?”. Jack responds with the standard Aussie male response of “all good, all good”. But then, we shift from Jack’s outer voice to go inside his head and hear his inner voice that reveals that far from “all good” he’s struggling with the pressures of making ends meet on his family farm. As he gets towards the end of his stress riddled monologue, his inner voice finds its way out and he shares his concerns with Shane, who is reassuring and supportive in response. A VO then delivers the end line: Let your inner voice out.

Australia is facing a male mental health crisis, and The Men’s Table (TMT) charity helps by providing a safe and supportive environment for men to come together once a month to talk openly about what they’re going through. All TMT Tables are founded and run by local volunteers, so in order to set up a new table, the organisation needs to recruit both would-be founders and members in local communities. At the time of briefing TMT was running 96 “Tables” (groups) in communities across Australia. Our brief was to help them grow their footprint by 10% and so hit and exceed their all-important 100 Tables milestone. As a not-for-profit organisation with extremely modest budgets, brand awareness was very low, so our objective was to drive awareness of The Men’s Table and the benefit of attending its meetings and so drive interest in running a Table or taking part in one.

This spot ran as one of three in a 4 week regional Australian campaign that targeted three different male demographics in four different regions. The campaign exceeded its target by over 100% helping The Men’s Table launch 20 new Tables, thereby increasing their national footprint by 21%.

It could be said that it’s part of the Australian national identity to be no-nonsense blokes who “man up” and get on with it in the face of adversity. But not reaching out for help and not talking about our feelings when we’re struggling is killing us - quite literally. Every day in Australia an average of 6 men commit suicide. Suicide is in fact the leading cause of death in men aged 15 to 49, making male suicide Australia’s #1 male public health problem. So the work that The Men’s Table is doing to normalise men sharing what’s going on for them, and providing a safe and supportive space to share what’s going on for them is vital.