Tennessee Dept. of Health (Paid Media)
Results Worth Bragging About
4,000+
3.3M+
312,000+
Who is the Tennessee Dept. of Health and Why Did They Come to PBJ for Help?
In 2024, the Tennessee Department of Health launched two statewide suicide-prevention initiatives:
- One focused on reducing stigma among teens and parents
- And one aimed at rural men, veterans, and Hispanic communities experiencing disproportionately high suicide risk
Both campaigns required culturally authentic messaging, precise audience targeting, and thoughtful creative that reduced stigma without feeling clinical or dismissive.
TDH faced the challenge of reaching fragmented and hard-to-access audiences:
- Teens navigating digital-first environments
- Rural men influenced by strong cultural norms of self-reliance
The campaigns needed to balance empathy with performance, ensuring high engagement while delivering life-saving information in a way that felt authentic and culturally grounded.
Our Strategy
Youth Campaign Strategy
We developed a dual-audience strategy targeting both teens and parents, each with distinct messaging and media placement.
For parents, we leveraged high-trust environments such as news and sports programming to model healthy emotional check-ins. For teens, we focused on streaming and social platforms where they spend uninterrupted time, delivering authentic, relatable creative that normalized conversations around mental health.
Creative centered on everyday emotional moments rather than dramatized crisis scenarios and included fully produced Spanish-language spots to ensure cultural authenticity.
Rural Male Campaign Strategy
To reach rural men, veterans, and Hispanic communities, we developed culturally specific creative tailored to each audience's lived experience. Messaging focused on reducing stigma and reframing help-seeking as strength rather than weakness.
Media placements prioritized tentpole television programming for broad reach, streaming targeted to rural zip codes and Hispanic-dense geographies, and audience addressable delivery for veteran households to maximize relevance and minimize waste.
Creative reflected real rural environments, authentic representation, and culturally nuanced storytelling to build trust with high-risk groups.
Full Picture Results
1.1M+
5,700+
2M+
350,000+
266,000+
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