In 2019, NBA Mind Health engaged Reingold to build on a growing conversation around mental health, started by players like DeMar DeRozan and Kevin Love. The goal was to communicate with NBA players and teams about mental health issues specific to the professional sports experience.
Fast forward five years: As part of our growing partnership, Reingold developed and launched the integrated “Join the Mind Health Squad” campaign for Mental Health Awareness Month. Through an award-winning micro site and expo show booth, the Squad brought new meaning for what it means to prioritize your mental health.
The 2024 site and campaign have since been recognized with 18 industry awards, including the highest distinction at the DotComm, Web, and Creative Communication awards. The campaign was also named a finalist for the 2024 Shorty Impact Awards. But this marks just our latest chapter with the program. Together, we’ve also worked to:
How do you address stress and anxiety in your life?
Do you like to get out and move, like the Dynamic Defender? Do you like to connect with friends, like the Trusty Teammate? Or do you just like to take a timeout and pause, like the Centered Center?
For Mental Health Awareness Month 2024, Reingold and NBA launched the Join the Squad campaign to bring six mental health approaches to life for professional basketball players, teams, and fans.
The campaign centered around the Mind Health Squad and an interactive quiz that the general public could take to identify their go-to mind health style – be it move, play, pause, learn, connect, or nourish. Visitors were then assigned a corresponding persona, such as the Centered Center (for “pause”) or the Playful Point Guard (for “play”).
The campaign site featured custom videos and illustrations. Each style and persona had its own page featuring bite-sized information and tips, such as how to use that particular style to confront a challenge. There were also unique video compilations of NBA fans explaining what they do to move, play, pause, learn, connect, and nourish in their everyday lives.
Now, how do you bring those six mental health themes to life for a large fan expo during NBA All-Star Weekend? Our answer: the Mind Gym.
In partnership with Mind Health and the MRN Agency, Reingold created the Mind Gym to highlight the small steps visitors can take every day to enhance their mental health. The interactive space used videos, custom-designed games, guided meditations, postcards, stickers, and a community activation to engage fans in a hands-on, creative way.
For example, at the “play” station, fans were given 30 seconds to draw a randomly assigned NBA logo. At the “learn” station, fans matched feelings with their definitions and associated emojis in an effort to help people better describe what they’re feeling in the future.
Facing an injury. Getting traded to a new town. Achieving sudden stardom. Losing a role on the team.
These are just some of the unique challenges that a professional basketball player can face over the course of their career.
To highlight the mental health issues that can often accompany these challenges — along with resources to address them — Reingold worked with Mind Health to launch an internal website. This meant applying our experience in the mental health space to a specific audience: elite athletes in the public eye.
The site provides information around mental health challenges and how to find support. It also features custom illustrations, scroll-based animations, engaging articles on topics like maintaining relationships and navigating transitions, and a resource library that’s filterable by topic and type.
