In October 2018 M&C Saatchi Launched their wellbeing network, Together. The strategy was aimed at creating events and opportunities to open up the dialogue around mental health and mental wellbeing for all employees.
A survey for marketing and media professionals by mental health charity Mind and Nabs, the support organisation for the UK ad and media industry, showed that 26 per cent of respondents said they had a long-term mental health condition.
Six in 10 said their work had had a negative impact on their well-being in the past year. Creative burnout and long working hours had become an industry norm and the need to retain and attract key talent in a difficult industry lead M&C Saatchi to pioneer their approach to creative mental health. By May 2019 the company had a full Mental health First Aid programme implemented and was hosting regular events on mental health and resilience.
The strategy included focussing on creative campaigns around mental health including The "Visual Diet" in collaboration with Marine Tanguy of MTArt Agency, an agency for visual artists, and photographer Rankin, showing the impact of selfie culture on mental health.
In March 2020, Kooth and M&C Saatchi entered a partnership to provide Kooth Work to all employees. The partnership sees M&C Saatchi supporting the branding and social advertising work of Kooth and Kooth providing anonymous and easy to access online mental health support for all staff.
Around 10% of staff have accessed the service with 91% of registered users regularly coming back for support. Kooth works with MC Saatchi to use anonymous insights to look at key presenting issues and concerns impacting the mental health of employees and to influence their strategy on additional support they can provide to employees.
“It has been a pleasure to work with M&C Saatchi on implementing Kooth into their organisation. The team have a really well thought through approach to mental health from reducing stigma to incorporating responsible thinking into creative work and we are really pleased that we can provide our service to support staff with high quality counselling and support” Annie Meharg, Chief Commercial Officer, Kooth