How mental health brands are marketing amid COVID burnout

Burnout has been one of the pandemic’s buzzwords as millions of workers tire of working from home under lockdown conditions and high employer expectations. The long-term toll of more than a year and a half of COVID-19 stress and anxiety is helping to bring mental health into mainstream culture and conversation. The new attention has led to a surge in upstart brands offering services designed to improve mental health and combat mental illness. But these newcomers are tasked with creating appropriate marketing at a time when customers are confused by options and issues around insurance and employee coverage. Brands must make business-to-business appeals to employers that are increasingly providing more coverage to staffers, while also advertising directly to consumers looking to improve wellness on their own. The startup brands offer mental health support, either through therapy and other health care services such as cognitive behavior exercises, or connections to medical professionals. They include brands such as Alma, LifeStance Health, Octave and Two Chairs. In the second quarter of 2021 alone, funding for such ventures reached a record high of $1.3 billion, according to CB Insights. “As we’ve seen this rising conversation about people being more open about seeking therapy, more services are coming forward explaining what they can do and that’s addressing a real underlying need,” said Laurie Dewan, VP of brand, insights and communications at Healthline, a health information site. Three-year-old Alma, which provides tools and support for its growing network of 2,000 therapists, says interest is surging from employers looking for new mental health programming and education. “Before the pandemic, you were starting to see some momentum—whether it was in the media or with your employer, but it really surged overnight,” said Claire Spangenberg, VP head of brand and marketing at Alma, which was founded by Harry Ritter, a former executive at insurer Oscar Health. Spangenberg notes that brands had been looking for more mental health resources for employees pre-COVID. "Employers went from, ‘It would be nice to have some programming,’ then all of a sudden they needed programming for their employees today on anxiety and burnout and they couldn’t wait another day.” More than two out of five people said they’re anxious or depressed nearly every day, according to a survey released in late 2020 by Healthline. It showed 38% of respondents citing the COVID-19 pandemic as a source of stress, while 47% said loneliness, including from coronavirus lockdowns, as a source. Experts also cite stress-inducing global crises including climate change and the pronounced need for social justice in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. “We all had the sense the world was coming unhinged,” said Alex von Plato, CEO of Publicis Health. “The health care system is already strained on a good day, and COVID strained it to the point of breaking--it exposed inequities in a way that had never really been aired and also exposed that the mental health care system is almost nonexistent for many people.” She noted that there is a challenge for many brands in establishing broad awareness in the mental health landscape--and that there are enough newcomers that there may be an eventual shakeout in the industry. “One of the things that all these providers will have to confront is the difference between mental health and mental illness,” she said, adding that sole virtual care might not always be the best solution for all patients. “Yes, there’s an unmet need in the marketplace, but what’s the best medically appropriate way to meet that need and that’s going to be dependent person by person—there won’t be a one size fits all.” Such challenges make it crucial for each brand to get their messages right, as they pour more resources into marketing. LifeStance—which offers both virtual and in-person appointments with psychiatrists, advanced practice nurses, psychologists and therapists—hired a senior VP of marketing in December, tapping Ashley Anderson from health club Equinox, and ran its first marketing campaign earlier this year. The brand, which went public in June, spent $85.5 million on general and administrative expenses, including marketing, for the three-month period ended June 30—a tenfold increase over the year-earlier period. Its recent campaign, “No Face,” worked to destigmatize mental illnesses such as depression and anorexia, while communicating to people that LifeStance can connect them with help. Ads ran on connected TV and organic and paid social channels, and resulted in 500,000 impressions, Anderson said. “For us, it’s trying to make people aware of our brand and that we are a bit of a humanized brand and we are here to help you,” she said. Celebrities help to drive awareness Similarly, Alma, which plans to be national by the end of next year, quadrupled the staff in its marketing department to 16 this year, a number Spangenberg said will double by the end of 2022. The company now has 2,000 therapists in its network—in March 2020, that figure was 200. Competitor Octave, which is three years old, has the goal of making mental health care more accessible through therapy and coaching services. Two Chairs also offers a promise of accessibility to those in need. Much of the focus on mental health comes from younger generations more willing to share their experiences on social media platforms, experts said. “Already before COVID, we were beginning to see that there was some awareness of mental health issues because social platforms are essentially open diaries,” said von Plato, noting that now, younger people have found a community of support online and that’s opening the door for older generations to follow suit. “We’re exposing a lot of our inner thoughts and emotions broadly and that’s creating an atmosphere making it OK to share.” In addition, many celebrities have spoken out publicly about challenges with mental health, which is helping to drive more acceptance for those seeking help. The statements earlier this year from both Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles around their struggles with mental wellness, given the pressure put on them from athletic expectations, helped normalize the issue. Many of the brands that work with both women, including Athleta and Sweetgreen, publicized their support of mental wellness. “When you see brands stepping up, they’re doing that because it’s the right thing to do, but also because you do have a greater level of interest and receptivity to it than ever before,” said Dewan. Most brands are prioritizing education in their marketing in order to communicate the different ways provider brands can help patients, and navigate thornier issues around payments. At Alma, potential patients can “self-serve” through a directory to find a provider who takes their insurance. But the company also offers a “client-matching experience” where an employee will help guide a person to a therapist. The brand primarily advertises on Instagram, though it also hosted a podcast series around mental health in May. Yet Spangenberg cautioned that everything Alma posts on social media has been vetted through a clinician. “We’re not skimming the surface, we’re not underestimating how challenging navigating mental health can be,” she said. “We’re speaking with some level of authority through clinicians and giving them a platform to show their experience.” Alma is careful to set boundaries around how often it is on social media—for example, the brand does not post on weekends. It also measures success by saves and shares rather than by likes and comments. “We want to see that this content was useful and additive enough that you took the time to save it—that signals to us this content is useful,” said Spangenberg. New providers need to arm consumers with the right language to use when searching for help and articulating symptoms, according to Dewan. She suggested using an interactive quiz on a website to guide patients. Earlier this year, Healthline published a Conscious Language Guide to help brands use the right terms and not stigmatize customers. For example, the guide encourages people to say someone has “a mental health condition” instead of that someone “is mentally ill” in order to show more empathy. “While people are generally more open to therapy than they’ve ever been, they really don’t have the language, they don’t understand their symptoms,” Dewan said. “It’s a scary and vulnerable time and these organizations need to be clear about the solutions they’re offering and also be very empathetic.”

How mental health brands are marketing amid COVID burnout

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