It S Time to Talk, It S Time to Change Questions and Answers

It’s time to talk, it’s Time to Change | Questions and answers

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It’s time to talk, it’s Time to Change

October 2014 campaign burst

Getting involved

More about Time to Change

It’s time to talk, it’s Time to Change

What is‘It’s time to talk’?

‘It’s time to talk’ is the tag line forouradvertising campaigns. Launched in 2011,‘It’s time to talk’ aims to increasethe number of people having conversations about mental health across England, thereby reducingthe stigma and discriminationthat people with mental health problems face.

Our new campaign in October 2014 continues ‘It’s time to talk’ by showing the small things you can do to support someone experiencing a mental health problem - by sending a text, chatting over a cuppa, giving them a call to find out how they are or inviting them out, for example - and that you just need to be that friend, family member or colleague you’ve always been.Using a range of advertising channels, the campaign shows that mental health problems are relevant to everyone, reducing the opinion that mental health problems ‘just happen to others’. It aims to reducethe discomfort and awkwardness in talking about mental health and give people the tools to help them feel able to support friends, family and colleagues affected by mental health problems.

Who is the advertising campaign aimed at?

Our core target audience for 2014 remains the same as in previous years: 25-45 year olds, from middle to lower socio-economic groups who are living in England and are ‘not close’ to mental health problems.Within this audience we also have a specific target to reach both men and women in African and Caribbean communities.

This campaign, however, also aims to reach and engagepeople with mental health problems, who are much closer to the issue, and current Time to Change supporters. These peopleare our most important advocates and have been central to the progress we’ve made so far. We want to encourage and support people to startconversations about mental health andbecome part of the movement to end mental health discrimination.

The Time to Change programme also works with children and young people aged 14-18 as part of our phase two work, but this campaign is not specifically aimed at young people.

October2014 campaign

Where will you be advertising?

The campaign will include the following activity:

Radio

From 6-27 October and 10-17 November we will be running radio adverts from the January campaign with an adapted call to action. The adverts will be playing on most of the commercial radio stations in England, including Heart, Capital and Gold and will also feature on Spotify.

Metro partnership

On 16 October we will be launching a four-week campaign with the Metro. The Metro will run full-page articles featuring real life people every Thursday focusing on the different ways people have helped them when they were going through a difficult time. The first feature will be a double-page spread looking at how work colleagues have supported each other.

Advertising online

The revised 30 second adverts will run on YouTube from 10 October. At the same time we will have adverts in the main internet search engines, as well as display banner advertising on many websites.

Social media

The campaign will launch on social media on 10 October on Facebook and Twitter. We will be running promoted tweets on Facebook and Twitter from 10 October throughout the campaign to get the message out as far as possible.

The campaign will be live from 10 October until 24 November 2014 with advertising spread over the following weeks:

Were people with experience of mental health problems involved in developing thecampaign?

People with mental health problems have been involved from the start in developing and leading Time to Change activities across the programme. At the beginning of the programme, nearly 4,000 people with mental health problems, including carers, took part in our Stigma Shout research, the largest ever survey about stigma and discrimination. The results of this survey informed the direction of our work.

People with mental health problems were consulted in the research and development of the campaign and also feature heavily in the advertising. Our TV advert focuses on five pairs of friends, colleagues or family members. In each pair we feature someone with experience of a mental health problem alongside someone who has been there to support them. In addition, our radio adverts, partnership with Metro newspaper and digital advertising all feature people with lived experience who support Time to Change.

We are very grateful that people are willing to be so open about their personal experiences and support the campaign in this way, as we know sharing personal experience is one of the best ways to challenge stigma and discrimination.

How do you ensure the ‘It’s time to talk’ campaign reaches and represents different Black and Minority Ethnic groups?

We know that mental health discrimination is an issue that is relevant to people from all communities that make up the English population, and that knowledge, attitudes and behaviour surrounding mental health can vary across communities. Our programme therefore has to meet the needs of diverse groupsand make sure our messages are relevant to them.

We have targets to particularly reach people from African and Caribbeancommunities during phase two of Time to Change, and we have carried out in-depth ethnographic research to better understand this audience. We are working with a steering group of people with experience in media and communications, community development work, and mental health to develop marketing materials and five 30 second films aimed specifically at African and Caribbean communities. We will be promoting these materials during October 2014 to coincide with the current advertising campaign. In addition, people from Black and Minority Ethnic groups also feature in our current advertising.

In the first phase of Time to Change, we worked in partnership with the South Asian community in Harrow. We developed specific activity with the community to ensure the messages were culturally relevant and used the appropriate channels to deliver these. In the current phase, we have prioritised working with African and Caribbean communities. We will be working with members of these communities – those who have experience of mental illness and those that don’t – to develop a national campaign. We are also working with African and Caribbean communities in other areas of the programme, including community engagement events and a pilot project to improve the way young African and Caribbean men are treated within services.

There is more information about the work we have done with Black and Minority Ethnic communities, and the impact we have had, here:

Isn’t this kind of advertising expensive?

Advertising is expensive. However, we know that advertising is one of the best ways to reach a large number of people and get them talking.Advertising is particularly important in helping us reach those who say they don’t know someone with a mental health problem and that mental health isn’t relevant to them. In addition, our research has shown a significant link between reaching people through our advertising and improvements in their knowledge and behaviour towards people with mental health problems.

What do you want people to do?

We want people who see or hear about the campaign to visit the Time to Change websiteto find out how they can start a conversation about mental health and be there for someone they know. Once on our website, we want people to begin their conversation by signing our pledge wall and pass on the campaign by sharing our content with friends, family and colleagues. In addition, we want them to register their interest in taking part in the Time to Talk Day and encouraging others to do the same.

Getting involved

What can I do?

Here are some of the things individuals can do:

• Watch and share our videos
• Make a pledge to talk about mental health
• Like us on Facebookor follow us on Twitter
• Send an ecard to start the conversation
• Find an event near you and go along
• Sign up on our website to receive our newsletter and all the latest updates and involvement opportunities from Time to Change.

You can get more inspiration about getting involved at

How can my organisation get involved with ‘It’s time to talk’?

• Order our ‘event box’– a box containing all the resources you need to run local activity including a leaflets, postcards, badges, posters and pens
• Get ideas and inspiration on how to get started, and find out how other organisations have been getting involved on our website
• Make a pledge as an organisationto support Time to Change. This is a way to show your commitment to tackling mental health discrimination publicly.
• Sign up on our website to receive our newsletter and all the latest updates and involvement opportunities from Time to Change.
• Start following the programme on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.Support us online and link to us from your organisation’s website
• If you would like to advertise in your area, or add your organisation’s logo to materials, we are happy to share our artwork and work with your organisation to run a campaign. Please get in touch if you you’d like to discuss an ideas for working with by us by emailing

More about the Time to Change

Can you tell me more about Time to Change?

Time to Change is an anti-stigma programme led by the leading mental health charitiesMindandRethink Mental Illness. These two charities decided to work together, combining their knowledge, skills and expertise, to end the stigma and discrimination that surrounds mental health.

As well as delivering a national advertising campaign, Time to Change delivers a wide range of projects, engaging people in all sectors and communities. These include community events; working with the media; a children and young people’s project; work with organisations; funding grassroots anti-stigma projects through our grants scheme; supporting people with experience of mental health problems to take leadership roles in challenging discrimination; and focused work with Black and Minority Ethnic communities.

We have been running since 2007 and our work is proven to be having a positive impact on public attitudes as well as reducing the discrimination that people with mental health problems face.

Who is funding the programme?

The campaign is being funded by the Department of Health,Comic Relief and theBig Lottery Fundfrom 2011-2015.Overall, the Time to Change programme is funded with £16m from the Department of Health, £4m from Comic Relief and £3.6m from Big Lottery Fund.

I’ve got another question...

If you’ve got any further questions, then please do get in touch. Our contact details are...

General campaign enquiries:

Sarah Cohen, Head of Social Marketing: 020 7840 3141

Carl Burkitt, Social Marketing Officer:

Chris Kilvington, Senior Social Marketing Officer: 020 7840 3142

Neal Brown, Social Marketing Officer: 020 7840 3136

or email the campaign team.

Media enquiries:

Hayley Richardson-Roberts, Communications Manager, on 020 82152358or email

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