Turning Monday Blues into Monday Cues – a Sustainable Social Marketing Approach

Background: Chronic, unmanaged stress has grown to be common place in US culture, and the public health implications are significant with increased risks of heart disease, sleep disorders, anxiety, and other health issues. However, a recent study by FGI showed that many people view Monday as an opportunity for a fresh start and, if people start the week in a positive frame of mind, they’re more likely to maintain a better mood throughout the week. Additionally, social marketers utilize successful marketing strategies to sell health, but often fail to have a significant impact on behavior change if they do not disseminate messages when audiences are most receptive to them. The ideal approach targets audiences when they are “open to buy” health and provides a sustainable strategy to help them maintain behavior change. An analysis of health-related Google searches from 2004-2012 showed a surge in healthy contemplations and actions on Monday. Therefore, Mondays provide a social context for change.

Program background: 

Building on this research and the “fresh start effect” of Mondays, the Monday Campaigns launched the social marketing campaign DeStress Monday in the fall of 2015 in order to help individuals start their week in a positive mindset and reduce overall daily stress. The campaign focuses on evidence-based stress-reduction, breathing, positive psychology, and mindfulness techniques to improve mental and physical wellbeing. Content includes a weekly e-newsletter, infographics and tips shared via social media, guided audio meditations, e-cards to spread happiness, and other website resources. A social media approach is the particular focus of the campaign in order to promote personal stress management behavior in a way that provides the benefit of flexible schedules, autonomy, and wider audience reach.

Evaluation Methods and Results: 

DeStress Monday’s use of digital communication combines best practices in marketing with behavior change theory. Web and social media analytics are consistently monitored and used as benchmarks for success. The campaign has experienced tremendous growth since its launch with several hundred newsletter subscribers, above industry standard (19.8%) open rate at around 50-60% for the newsletter, high engagement on social media, and more than 16,000 website pageviews. Additionally, many worksite wellness programs at Fortune 500 companies are adapting the program for their own employees.

Conclusions: 

The large growth of the DeStress Monday campaign within only a few short months demonstrates the general need for stress-reduction resources among individuals and its high impact of distributing such content through digital channels.

Implications for research and/or practice: 

Leveraging weekly cycles and the “fresh start” effect of Monday can help social marketers increase receptivity of messages, grow their digital campaigns, and help audiences engage in a specific health behavior, which in this case is to begin the week in a less stressed manner that will hopefully carry throughout the rest of the week.