The Belief & Behavior Challenge

To serve the state’s growing need for immediate access to behavioral health resources, the Colorado Department of Human Services was launching a mental health crisis hotline and an accompanying network of regional crisis centers. Cactus was hired to create the new brand and build awareness, but our greatest challenge was addressing the need to build trust. It’s hard to know where to turn when you’re in crisis, and it’s even harder to trust an unfamiliar resource with your most personal and vulnerable needs. We needed Coloradans to believe that a simple, one-stop resource could empathize with their specific needs and help them through their most challenging, frustrating, and overwhelming moments.

The
Sharp Idea:

Crisis is in the eye of the beholder. Moments of crisis are felt in a variety of ways. One person’s temporary moment of frustration may be another’s breaking point. Yet, while every experience of crisis is unique, the feelings of being in crisis are universal. So we crafted a brand and campaign that connects with people experiencing a wide range of issues by empathizing with the universal feelings of being in crisis.

The Results

In the service’s first year, our campaign helped to connect 394,000 people to the help they needed. In year two, that number grew by 65%. And to-date, the number of connections to crisis help totals more than one million, with calls and texts to the service line increasing 18.5% when media is in market.

Colorado Crisis Services

Manipulating the Medium to Create Meaningful Connection

The Belief & Behavior Challenge

The
Sharp Idea:

The Results

Colorado Crisis Services

Manipulating the Medium to Create Meaningful Connection

The Belief & Behavior Challenge

TheSharp Idea:

The Results

The
Sharp Idea: