Submitted by Golin

Day 734

Influencer Marketing

Golin Ketchum built BetterHelp's comeback campaign around Lewis Capaldi's return to the Glastonbury stage, and the agency reports 47% of new signups came from people new to therapy.

38signups new to therapy
38global markets
100,000hours of free therapy
100,000fans at live performance

Case in 60 seconds

Anxiety, depression and isolation sit at record levels among young people while therapy stays out of reach through stigma rather than cost or access, so BetterHelp needed them to believe therapy could work for them.

The campaign appears to turn on the observation that young people dismiss authorities telling them to seek help because they trust someone recognisable speaking honestly about their own experience instead.

BetterHelp built the whole comeback around one number, 734, the days between Lewis Capaldi breaking down on the Glastonbury stage and the moment he walked back onto it.

Capaldi returned to the same stage and performed Survive to 100,000 fans, announcing 734,000 hours of free therapy, one thousand for every day he had been away. Coverage followed across the BBC, Billboard, People, NME, Rolling Stone and GQ, with headlines reinforcing that therapy made the comeback possible and could do the same for anyone.

Golin Ketchum reports that the campaign reached 38 global markets and that 47% of new signups came from people who had never tried therapy before. Coverage ran across the BBC, Billboard, People, NME, Rolling Stone and GQ, and the page prints a BBC headline saying Capaldi credits therapy with a massive part in his comeback.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

Young people facing record levels of anxiety, depression and isolation who accept that therapy works in general but do not believe it could work for them.
Record levels of anxiety, depression and isolation among young people sit alongside a reluctance to enter therapy, and the page frames that gap as stigma rather than as cost or access.
Based on the available evidence, the difficulty was personal applicability rather than credibility, since the page states the challenge was never convincing young people that therapy works.
BetterHelp acted as the underwriter of someone else's recovery story rather than as its narrator, funding 734,000 hours of free therapy that Capaldi announced from the stage himself.
Based on the available evidence, the work assumes that watching a recognisable person describe his lowest point lowers the threshold for a first appointment, which is why the reported measure is signups new to therapy.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • live event
  • earned media

Partners

  • Golin Ketchum (lead_agency)

Participation mechanic

  • The 734,000 hours of free therapy gave the audience something to claim rather than only watch, and Golin Ketchum reports that 47% of new signups came from people who had never tried therapy before.

Creator role

  • Lewis Capaldi — creator

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult type
signups new to therapyThe campaign reached 38 global markets and drove 47% of new signups from people who had never tried therapy before.performance
global marketsThe campaign reached 38 global markets and drove 47% of new signups from people who had never tried therapy before.performance
hours of free therapyReturning to the same stage, performing Survive to 100,000 fans, he announced 734,000 hours of free therapy, one thousand for every day he was away.scope_of_work
fans at live performanceReturning to the same stage, performing Survive to 100,000 fans, he announced 734,000 hours of free therapy, one thousand for every day he was away.scope_of_work

Why Golin's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Where a category is blocked by stigma rather than by price or availability, the useful asset is a trusted person's own account, because permission travels through recognition rather than through argument.

  2. 2

    Anchoring a campaign to a single verifiable number, here the 734 days between two performances on the same stage, gives press a fact to repeat rather than a claim to assess.

  3. 3

    Scaling a donation to the story, with one thousand therapy hours for each of the 734 days away, ties the brand's spend to the person's timeline rather than to a media plan.

  4. 4

    Reporting the share of signups new to the category rather than signups overall tells a stigma campaign whether it moved people who were previously outside the category at all.

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