philosophy’s hope & grace initiative represents philosophy’s unending commitment to support mental health and wellbeing. Through the initiative, every philosophy product sold helps support community-based mental health efforts with financial grants focused on empowering women through the prevention and treatment of related issues. Since 2014, philosophy has donated over $5.4 million, distributed 91 grants across 74 organizations, which has supported 1.8M women.
The objective of this series was to advocate for mental health, expand B2C engagement with philosophy’s followers and bring new and existing audiences into the conversation around the various ways they could participate in the mental health space. Specifically, for Mental Health Awareness Month in 2020 the goal was to create a program to help people with their mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“staying in with philosophy” is a content series created to help people with their mental health while staying in due to COVID-19. The series began in April and continued into May for Mental Health Awareness Month to drive awareness for philosophy as a well-being beauty brand and to hero the hope & grace initiative through owned social channels, with a focus on an Instagram Live Content series. The series continues on a weekly basis to continue the conversation around the importance of mental health and well-being.
The series talks about mental health through a variety of content including, highlighting previous hope & grace grant recipients, sharing COVID-19 related self-care tips, showcasing mental health performance art and sharing weekly wellness and self-care reminders.
Throughout the month of May, philosophy hosted 10 Instagram Lives, all of which were promoted via email blasts, the philosophy website and Instagram. Each partner, whether a grant recipient or influencer partner, cross-promoted the Instagram Live on their owned channel.
Of the 10 Instagram Lives, seven were hosted by outside partners. Third party participants include: country music duo Maddie & Tae, spoken word artist and author Aija Mayrock, food blogger, Ewa Ko, celebrity makeup artist and wellness expert Alex Gill, National Alliance on Mental Illness, Half the Story and Downtown Women’s Center of Los Angeles.
Through this varied approach, philosophy was able to cover multiple facets of mental health, from an introductory discussion on Mental Health Awareness Month with the National Alliance on Mental Illness, to self-care rituals using philosophy’s new nature in a jar collection with influencer partner Alex Gill, to an at-home healthy cooking class featuring food blogger, Ewa Ko who all discussed how to maintain at-home healthy habits.
philosophy asked their followers to submit questions in advance of the Instagram Lives, and in the comments during the lives, to ensure topics were of interest to their community and to encourage optimal engagement.
The brand will continue the “staying in with philosophy” series throughout the year as an ongoing commitment to offer support during times when people need it most.
The 10 Instagram Lives hosted throughout the month of May was a 67% increase in Lives from the previous month and included a 600% increase in external partners compared to April. The Instagram Live with Maddie & Tae was philosophy’s most successful IG Live to-date, with viewership 280% higher than brand average (*see first link in “links” section).
philosophy identified authentic brand fans - such as country music duo Maddie & Tae, who participated in the Instagram Live without charge and in exchange for products. Product exchange as opposed to high influencer fees allowed the brand to expand the program with additional partners and achieve a 600% increase in external partners compared to April- in turn more content opportunities to disseminate mental health advocacy messaging.
