Ministry of Social Development

Research
Creative Strategy
Video Production
Creative Direction
Graphic Design
Direction

The Ministry of Social Development run a number of programs to. help New Zealanders with mental health. Working with OMD Content I was able to create content series and social creative to work alongside their campaigns: Are You OK and Love Better.

The creative and tone for each of these were developed alongside OMD Content’s social strategists, using existing brand work as a baseline and refining further for channel, audience and output. For each project I acted as Creative Lead and Director, ensuring that the visual tone was strong and that conversations around difficult subject matter flowed smoothly.

Love Better
This is a fairly high profile MSD campaign and it’s 2024-2025 iteration ‘Love Creep’ swept a number of creative awards categories. This meant MSD were keen on a strong visual identity for the next series. We were provided with a strong visual identity, featuring bold type and chartreuse tones, and a brief to get young people talking about how to Love Better.

This was an interesting brief: half wide-open and half-prescriptive. I worked again with OMD Content and OMG Production to bring it to life. I defined locations, themes, visual tones and styling to work in with the existing creative, bringing it to life in a new context.

We landed on two content series. The first was a barber set-up within a recording studio where young people were invited to come into a safe area and unload their thoughts on jealousy. This played with the common situation of people unburdening themselves to strangers in settings like salons, taxi’s and beauty parlours. The second was a vodcast in a studio using 2 experts, who were incredibly articulate on the subject matter. I directed both shoots, working in different ways to unlock conversations from these vastly different participants.

Both series were heavily stylised with green and yellow pops, and cinematic elements to blend with the overarching campaign. I also designed a bespoke barber chair, aprons and capes, as well as the titles and animated treatments to give a strong, clear visual treatment.

You can view the series here: https://www.instagram.com/lovebetternz/