How Headspace Is Spreading Health and Happiness in an Age of Anxiety

Few brands have been in a position to truly help consumers struggling during the Covid-19 pandemic quite like Headspace. The mindfulness and meditation app has always been about fostering health and happiness, and lately it’s ramped up that mission with initiatives to assist frontline workers and the newly unemployed. In this episode of On Brand, we discuss those efforts with Deborah Hyun, the company’s vp of global marketing, who also takes us through the brand’s partnerships with Snapchat and Sesame Street, what it’s like working with the agency GUT, and how Headspace is navigating a world that’s suddenly more openly talking about mental health.

Timestamps:

• 1:41 – How Deborah and her team have been managing WFH.
• 4:29 – Headspace’s initial response to the pandemic—how to help without seeming opportunistic.
• 6:31 – Its efforts to help frontline workers and the unemployed, as well as targeted initiatives in New York and Michigan.
• 12:11 – More about Headspace Promise, and how the brand feels about doing traditional advertising.
• 15:11 – A look at the brand’s partnership with Sesame Street to help kids dealing with stress and anxiety.
• 19:41 – Deborah explains the brand’s Snapchat partnership, known as Headspace Mini.
• 23:01 – On working with agencies like GUT, and how Deborah partners with Headspace chief creative officer Caroline Pay.
• 25:33 – What the next 6-12 months look like for Headspace.

Every Thursday at 4 p.m., Clio president Nicole Purcell and I chat with top brand marketers—most of whom are still working from home—about the value of creativity, what they want from their agency and solution partners, how they’re shepherding their brands through Covid and beyond, and more. See all the On Brand episodes here.

If you’re a brand marketer who’d like to take part in the series, please get in touch.