Timely trends drive awareness for Maybelline’s mental health initiative
Timely trends drive awareness for Maybelline’s mental health initiative
A timely, trend-driven campaign helped Maybelline boost awareness for their mental health programming
Maybelline may be a makeup brand, but their aspirations are much deeper than cosmetics. Since 2020, they’ve partnered with mental health nonprofits to run Brave Together, a program focused on destigmatizing mental health concerns and improving access to support.
In 2023, Maybelline launched Brave Talk, a new training program designed to help peers support each other. They wanted to build awareness for the program in places young people turn for mental health resources and positive inspiration. That led them to Pinterest—and then to Pinterest Predicts.
Pinterest has long had a reputation for positivity and mental health resources, from industry-leading policies to helpful products like compassionate search guides. As Maybelline dug into ideas for their Brave Together campaign, they realized there was a timely opportunity right at their fingertips.
The 2023 Pinterest Predicts report had named “Now Processing” as an emerging trend. This trend covered people seeking prompts for journaling, drawing and more, all rooted in improving their mental health and finding personal inspiration.
Maybelline decided to create a series of video ads for Mental Health Awareness Month, and invested in the Pinterest Predicts trend package program to help their ads pop. Buying into the program gave them special rights to a Pinterest Predicts badge that could run on their ads, helping grab more attention in people’s feeds.
Ads mentioned resources like a crisis text line and podcast. They also linked out to the Brave Together site to help people learn more about the programming and get involved. Personal stories from creators made the creative even more inspiring, helping build a deeper connection with people seeing the ads.
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"People struggling with mental health challenges might not know where to go for help. That’s why we want to share our Brave Together messaging and available resources with as many people as possible. Pinterest is the perfect platform for us because people feel safe exploring things that they might not feel comfortable talking about in the real world."
Jessie Feinstein
Senior Vice President Marketing, Maybelline
The campaign beat expectations, driving brand lift metrics and positive associations all around. A Kantar study measured a 7x higher lift in overall program awareness compared to their benchmarks for similar Pinterest campaigns.1 And, the campaign performed especially well with Gen Z, who showed a 20% higher lift in cause connection between Maybelline and mental health compared to other groups.2
Try these Pinterest best practices to get more out of your ads.
Explore the Pinterest Trend Badge program. This gives you exclusive rights to owning a trend in a specific category and market, helping your ads stand out on Pinterest. To get started, talk to your Pinterest account team.
Work with brand ambassadors or Pinterest creators to help tell your story with a trusted and authentic voice. In fact, brands that worked with creators saw 38% higher brand awareness.
Align your campaign to timely, emerging trends. Let insights about the people and zeitgeist behind the trend guide your timing, targeting, imagery and messaging.