Vice UK wanted to offer highly targeted help to the 1 in 5 students who have suicidal thoughts, by reaching them directly, in a context where they would be most receptive to an intervention and call to action. 

Lofi hip hop beats channels on YouTube attract a global 24/7 community of students, who come to study in the company of an animated girl and relaxing music. But concerningly, many talk openly in the Live Chat about feeling stressed, depressed and alone. This presented an opportunity to connect every single vulnerable student directly with relevant, localised, immediate support.

Vice UK’s health and wellness media vertical ‘Tonic’ was merging with the larger VICE brand. To coincide with the launch, Vice wanted to find a way to help students – a key audience – amidst the growing mental health crisis in the student community.

The objective was to get vulnerable students to proactively reach out for support; by connecting with suicide prevention helplines in their local country/language and to access relevant and helpful VICE Tonic Health and Wellness content. 

Another key objective was to make sure that the message would help not unintentionally harm, and so involved the Samaritans in the creative development.

To target students, we went to a place we knew they would be watching and listening - LoFi study beats.

24-hour live stream of relaxing music famed for its repeated animation of a girl just studying in a constant loop.

So, for the first time in 809 days we altered College Music’s animation, so the loop didn’t loop.

Out of nowhere she burst out of her expected animation and bursts into tears.

Eventually, the pressure becomes unbearable and considers taking her own life, but thankfully finds the strength to live.

The idea was to jolt students watching, who could relate to her, to seek help.

A suicide prevention expert was on the live chat engaging in conversations and giving students prevention helplines for the country they were in, whilst also directing them to a catalogue of articles written by Vice UK on mental health.

A lot was achieved in the first 24 hours following the live stunt, however, to maximise reach, the live film was turned into a short video and pinned to College Music’s channel. Vice UK social media channels directed people to the video. And for several days, Study Girl was missing from her bedroom in College Music’s live stream, prompting more to discover why and see the launch film.

College Music’s average live viewing numbers have increased by 240% (averaging 1,250 before campaign launch, increasing to an average of 3,000 afterwards).

1,816 viewers watched the 2-minute stunt live, and in the first 24 hours, 19% (347) had clicked through to the suicide prevention helplines on the channel.

In the first week, the campaign achieved organic reach of 6,817,000. Propelled by this coverage, at two weeks after launch, the pinned video has now been watched over 2 million times, with 130,000 people clicking through to VICE UK’s mental health resources.