Emerging Minds
Shining a light on infant and child mental health
The Opportunity
Funded by the Federal Government, Emerging Minds is dedicated to advancing the mental health and emotional wellbeing of Australian infants, children, adolescents and their families.
It develops mental health policy, services, interventions, training, programs and resources to upskill those working with infants, children and their parents to recognise how a child’s mental health is affected by their parent relationships and family dynamics.
With educational resources for practitioners and partnerships with key bodies in place, Emerging Minds was striving to draw media attention to the mental health issues affecting infants and children.
communikate et al was appointed to develop and deliver a national media relations and publicity program.
Our key objectives were to:
- Raise awareness of how experiences in childhood impact on a child’s emotional and social development
- Raise awareness of the need for all professionals working with families to consider the child and their mental health
- Position Emerging Minds as the go-to commentator on infant and child mental health
Our Approach
As an emerging topic and a newly established organisation, we needed to build the foundations for a meaningful and sustained media outreach program.
Our strategy involved:
- Developing media backgrounders on child mental health and Emerging Minds
- Conducting media training for Emerging Minds’ key spokespeople
- Using our knowledge of media agendas to identify key media targets and facilitating introductions for Emerging Minds’ spokespeople
- Leveraging Emerging Minds’ resources to generate news stories
- Identifying content creators and social media influencers to be ambassadors for Emerging Minds’ resources
The Outcome
Within a year, communikate et al introduced Emerging Minds to a wide range of media, securing more than 150 media placements national, mainstream media and professional journals targeting GPs, educators, relationship counsellors and psychologists.
The coverage focused on infant and child mental health, the factors that can affect it and the resources Emerging Minds has developed to support parents and practitioners. Coverage appeared across radio, television, print and online media, including:
- Radio National
- ABC
- 2GB
- The Age
- Sydney Morning Herald
- Today Tonight
- News Corp Australia
- The Sector
Working with three key content creators, our influencer marketing campaign educated nearly 140,000 parents about infant and child mental health through their social media newsfeed.
The campaign drove thousands of clicks to Emerging Minds’ website to access its resources and grew the following of its newly established Instagram page.
“From our first initial meeting, we knew communikate et al would be the right fit for Emerging Minds. We have been hugely impressed with the way they have immersed themselves in learning our brand and respecting our approach. It felt like they just ‘got us’ from the start! It has been such a pleasure working with their professional, smart and dynamic team. Over the course of the last year we have seen media coverage of our program grow steadily and tactically, and we can’t wait for what the next year holds. We have huge appreciation for what they have achieved for us and the respectful way that it is has been undertaken.”
Jacquelynne Lee, Provisional psychologist, knowledge translator and communications specialist
