By Lucie Cave, creative editorial director, Bauer

At Bauer Media we are constantly plugged into, monitoring, predicting and reacting to how our audiences – across our many disparate brands – are feeling about key issues affecting them and their lives. I don’t think it’s overstating it when I say that as a nation we are on the verge of a mental health epidemic. This is why, nearly two years ago we launched a multi brand, multi-platform campaign aimed at tackling the disparity between the way mental and physical health are treated with our ultimate goal to change the laws around mental health support in the workplace: Where’s Your Head At?

Our audiences told us that where they once valued career aspirations as their ultimate life goal, 76% of them now choose personal happiness as their key metric (Grazia, Game Changers 2.0, 2019).

They are more worried than ever about mental health with 86% saying that mental health is one of the biggest challenges facing the country today (nationally representative Bauer Media insight, 2018).

And most recently in a study about social media, 41% tell us that social media is important to them but 81% agree that social media should be used in moderation (Mental Health Survey, Bauer Insiders, October 2019).

So for World Mental Health Day, Bauer UK brands are coming together as a collective to act as mouthpiece for our audiences and show solidarity around the importance of connecting on a human level. We want people to have actual real life conversations, come offline and go out of office for at least an hour. Brands like Absolute Radio, KISS, heat, Magic and Empire will be logging off and posting this image to their social channels between 1-2pm.

In an interview this week with Grazia, YouTube star Zoe Sugg told me that despite growing up online (this year marks her tenth anniversary as a social media influencer) she believes in the importance of taking a step away from social media.

She shared: “What works for me is taking a bit more time off social media. Take a step back in terms of sharing too – sometimes it’s nice to give just myself that time to live my life. I make sure everyone I’m following is making me feel motivated and positive confident and nothing that makes me feel bad.”

At Festival of Marketing, I will be joining the Magnetic panel on Friday 10am to discuss how magazine brands can be a force for good by using their influence to campaign and change the law. I will also be hosting the festival closing session on Friday at 4.10pm,  along with Davina McCall, James Chandler from the IAB and Professor Green, asking whether, in the age of the trolls, if brands have a responsibility online towards their users’ mental health and safety.

To join Where’s Your Head At’s social media blackout on World Mental Health Day visit www.wheresyourheadat.org

To find out more about Where’s Your Head At? and how you can support visit: http://www.wheresyourheadat.org