Movember Fights for the Right to Grow

This year’s Movember campaign was proudly grown by The Dentsu Aegis Network. BC&F Dentsu, Carat, MKTG and Amnet created ‘The Right to Grow’ targeting High Schools with clean shave rules.

Confronted by the worst rates of male youth suicide in the world, the campaign aims to start a men’s health conversation earlier. The campaign creative centers around an open letter to Principals asking for ‘clean shave’ rules to be relaxed for the month;

You can give them the chance to grow, not just a moustache, but a healthy mindset.

Creative Director Mick Stalker says the creative tapped into a rights issue for young men;

“It doesn’t seem fair that those most at risk are not allowed to participate in Movember. Getting these guys to talk about their issues when they’re young, gives us the best chance of real change.” 

Firstly the letter was distributed directly to 178 schools, along with a downloadable poster to support schools to get the message out to students. Copies of the letter were then shared with nationwide news media, and a targeted Facebook campaign drove the conversation online. Full page press ads then appeared in all major newspapers, featuring the letter on the Principals desk and inviting the public to have their say. This was all supported by nationwide OOH and digital media campaign featuring the 2017 global Movember brand creative.

Dentsu Aegis Network Head of Strategy Jacquie Bennett describes Movember as her passion project;

“Mental health is a serious issue in New Zealand and it is too often ignored. Every year we search for new ways to generate talk ability for Movember, which has becoming increasingly challenging as the charity sector is so cluttered now. The Movember Foundation is also one of the many clients that we work on across our group, from strategy to creative, PR and media, so we had a big integrated think tank to draw on and a lot of people power to make this happen.”

Initial results indicate the Right to Grow campaign has been successful in generating over 30 news hits, including several television and radio impressions. Registrations are up with a solid 25% increase in 15-19 year old participants, and a significant 40% YOY increase in donations has been achieved to date.

The entire campaign was delivered as a pro bono initiative for the Movember Foundation and all media placement was donated by media owners free of charge.