Helping families build an anti-addiction habit.
From “This is your brain on drugs” to “To end addiction, start with connection.”
Over 25 years, we helped the Partnership evolve as the nation’s drug misuse and addition challenges evolved.
Partnership for a Drug-Free America was the largest single-issue public service advertising campaign. A later iteration, Partnership for Drug-Free Kids helped hundreds of thousands of families. Throughout this history, DiGo had a front-row seat for some of the most consequential behavior-change marketing experiments of the 21st Century.
In 2018, Partnership for Drug-Free Kids and CASA (the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse) merged, and we helped create a new strategy and lead the process of creating a new identity – the Partnership to End Addiction.
It was an identity with a “moon shot.” The bold mission to end addiction as a public scourge was embedded in the name, signaling an extraordinary level of commitment.
Challenge
After guiding the Partnership through the creation and launch of their new identity, we faced a mental health crisis in America together. Our job was to get their proven family-based solutions used by many more families.
Desired Positive Behavior Change
From fearfully disconnected to confidently connected, as measured by dramatic growth in the use of the Partnership’s digital and human-to-human services.
Positive Behavior Change Idea
Ending Addiction Starts With Connection.
Suddenly, a global pandemic was sucking up all the attention. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? But something was growing underneath. A mental health and addiction crisis. Families driven suddenly together began to notice things that had been hidden by normal life. In other homes, isolation accentuated problems or incubated new ones.
Naming another crisis wasn’t going to help. Where hope is invisible, denial is invincible.
The behavioral scientists and parent coaches at the Partnership knew a hopeful secret and we decided that our job was to get it out there.
We needed to speak directly about the relationship between young adults and the adults who love them.
Our message, “To end addiction, start with connection.”
We faced a novel set of production challenges that we decided to transform into blessings. Unable to shoot, we shifted our creative attention toward the emotive potential of animation.
Working with Bonfire, we create emotional stories of alienation and connection, accentuated by gorgeous music from The Lumineers.
The results exceeded all expectations. We made hundreds of thousands of connections. We helped the Partnership change behavior and save lives.
