Make→Shift Issue #6 | MINDCRAFT
About Make→Shift
Make→Shift is part of TrendWatching’s Free Trend Updates. Each monthly issue examines one cross-industry movement no brand can afford to ignore, answering ‘why now’ and spotlighting the opportunities brands can act on today.
All in a six-minute read.
Emotional resilience doesn’t just happen overnight.
From mental strength-building tools to ‘emotional workouts’ that put consumers through their paces, tomorrow, people will expect brands to help them develop the emotional resilience they need to thrive in an uncertain and troubled world.
Can you keep up?
COVID CATALYST
Mental health was a pre-pandemic talking point but the turbulence of 2020 accelerated the conversation and, for many consumers, prompted a rethink of the old-school physical/mental health binary. As the virus swelled, rates of depression tripled and a third of the global workforce reported burnout (an entirely separate, and far more stealthy, pandemic in itself). As a result, nearly 50% of US consumers actively prioritized their mental health over the past year.
THICKER SKIN
Consumers aren’t just battling the mental health fallout of the pandemic — political scandals, social unrest, online harassment and climate change are persistent stressors. These issues, and many others, require long-term solutions, regulation and system-wide changes, but consumers will appreciate tools which help them build resilience and provide insurance against the daily trials thrown their way.
RESILIENCE ON INVESTMENT
In recent years, consumer spending has reflected that thoroughly modern maxim — health equals wealth. The global home fitness equipment market leapt in value from USD 6.76bn to 9.49bn in 2020, with countless brands espousing the idea that an investment in health now will pay dividends for life. Structures built in disaster-prone areas have resilience engineered into their foundations, as do businesses in volatile markets: Increasingly, disruptive brands are applying this logic to mental health services as well.
DEMOCRATIZING RESILIENCE
To be clear, by “mental health services”, we’re not talking about the psychotherapist’s couch. Digital innovations and apps are breaking down fusty notions of mental health by reducing or entirely removing financial barriers to tools and resources. Platforms like Coa offer emotional fitness classes for USD 25 — mere pennies compared to an IRL therapy session — while Gen-Z (a demographic which has borne the brunt of lockdowns) can now get their mental health in check via TikTok, free of charge.
1/6 — LEGO
Kids taught to tackle “meanies” online
For Safer Internet Day 2021, LEGO created a quiz to help kids combat “meanies” online. In a series of videos, kids are shown instances of cyberbullying and asked how they would handle the various situations. Kids who confront the online bullies are praised for their empathy, while those who choose to join the taunting are taught how to make amends. It’s a classic lesson in being streetwise, zhuzhed up for digital natives.
2/6 — COA
Mind-over-body fitness regimes
Coa, the US-based ‘mental health gym’ invites consumers to really ‘feel’ the burn through therapist-led emotional fitness classes. Gym nuts can either book a single class in “mental wellness” or “leadership”, a series of eight classes which promise to “kick-start” their resilience, or book a one-on-one personal training session with a therapist. According to Coa, maintaining strong mental health requires ongoing work, much like a physical exercise regime.
3/6 — GENDREAD
Newsletter grounds the eco-anxious
GenDread is a newsletter which explores the soft side of a hard problem: Specifically, mental health in the context of a global climate crisis. The author, Britt Wray, started the Substack after becoming overwhelmed by eco-anxiety. Determined to learn more about planetary health, she interviewed over 100 experts and created a newsletter (soon to become a book) full of tips for others struggling to navigate rocky, emotional terrain.
4/6 — TIKTOK
TikTok introduces mental health toolkit
The frenetic world of TikTok might not seem like the most obvious portal for mental health services, but in April 2021, the social media platform launched a ‘wellness hub’ for users looking to improve their physical and mental wellbeing. The hub is split across four categories — food and nutrition, fitness, life advice, and mindfulness — and kept updated with content from TikTok influencers, plus information from professional third-party resources.
5/6 — EXHALE
“Soul medicine” for BIWOC
Exhale was created in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, specifically to address the overlooked anxieties and concerns of Black and Indigenous Women of Color (BIWOC). Along with breath-work exercises, the app includes visualizations and meditations designed to remediate the everyday stressors encountered by BIWOC. The app is available to download for free from Google Play and the App Store.
6/6 — IT’SOK
Emotional health: It’s as easy as ABC
Plenty of kids aspire to good grades, but emotional intelligence? Not so much. It’sOk is a South Africa-based app which monitors student wellbeing and translates the data into reports — enabling schools to address any concerning trends, while also encouraging kids to be open with their emotions. As well as inviting kids to emotionally ‘check in’, children can message their school counsellor, and access breath-work tools via the app.
CREATE CONNECTIONS
Building emotional resilience might be deeply personal, but hitting those individual goals is made easier with the support of others. Do like Real — a subscription-based app which provides on-demand group therapy sessions — and approach mental wellbeing as a group activity in which people can learn from one another. As a brand, you have the contacts and resources to bring together people at all levels of emotional fitness in a communal space where they can share, heal and grow together.
STICK TO YOUR STRENGTHS
What are the unique mental health challenges related to your industry and how can you give customers the tools they need to overcome them? Need some extra inspo? Whole Foods and Headspace’s tie-up centred around mood-enhancing food, while the Washington State Department of Financial Institution ran a series of webinars and workshops to help citizens improve their financial resilience during difficult times. Perhaps there are inspiring resilient figures in your sector — Nike’s ‘Never Too Far Down’ campaign featured comeback stories from Tiger Woods and Serena Williams. Start by distilling your expertise, and then call in the partners you need to bring it to consumers.
Five practical ways to build MINDCRAFT into your organization:
- Download Misü. The smartphone app analyzes users’ facial expressions and offers up suggestions as to how consumers can adapt their online behaviour in order to improve their wellbeing.
- Test your emotional resilience with this interactive quiz by the Bank Workers Charity. Upon completion, you’ll be presented with a personal profile, picking apart your strengths and weaknesses. It’s not as brutal as it sounds, promise.
- Read this article on languishing — “the dominant emotion of 2021” — for a breakdown of that familiar ‘meh’ feeling spawned by the pandemic…
- Subscribe to the Gendread newsletter to learn more about ‘eco-anxiety’, and how your brand can respond to newfound consumer concerns. Join the conversation in the comments.
- Check out Mind Celebrations. Invite colleagues to review their emotional fitness and see how fatigue, burnout, and too much screen time could be impacting your organization.
The Make→Shifts you may have missed:
From “The Fight for Facts” to the new “Hands Off” economy, our previous Make→Shift issues provide a cornucopia of purpose-driven insights, plus actions you can take on the trends that matter.
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