Thjnk for Helsana: Fighting loneliness with a smartphone
To mark Friendship Day, Thjnk and Helsana launched a small experiment: People were encouraged to use messaging apps to seek out and rekindle forgotten friendships.
Smartphones have made social relationships more fast-paced. Contacts are made quickly, but sometimes forgotten just as quickly. An unanswered chat, a message that was never returned - and the connection to friends and acquaintances is severed.
Figures from the latest federal health survey show that 42.3% of the Swiss population sometimes or very often feel lonely. This is an increase of around 12% since 2007. Helsana also sees the cell phone as an opportunity to reactivate old friendships.
In one experiment, people were asked to take out their smartphones and scroll down their messaging apps to find their forgotten chats. Finally, the protagonists were encouraged to get over themselves and just spontaneously write a message to their "forgotten" friends. A simple "Hello, how are you?" was often enough to revive the chat and thus the social contacts. So that the digital "forgotten friendships" become real friendships again.
It's a small step with a big impact: results from the Helsana Emotions Study show that actively maintaining social relationships has a positive effect on a person's emotional state in every respect. Because if there is no exchange with other people, if there is no one there to listen to you, your quality of life suffers. Isolation and loneliness can therefore lead to serious stress and sleep disorders, depression and cardiovascular disease. Helsana wants to help people to reconnect with each other. A little courage and overcoming can go a long way.
Responsible at Helsana: Marc Lottenbach (Head of Marketing), Michael Schneider (Co-Lead Outbound Marketing), Sabrina Molinari and Marina Ulrich (Project Managers Outbound Marketing), Marco Müller (Head of Design & Brand Management), Leo Steffen (Design & Brand Management), Gabriela Braun (Content Manager), Monika Hofstetter (Social Media Manager). Responsible at Thjnk Zurich: Alexander Jaggy, Pablo Schencke (Managing Director Creation), Tobias Röben, Artur Deyneuve (Creative Direction), Johannes Gorsboth (Text), Mara Schwegler (Art Direction), Andrea Bison (Management Consulting), Cornelia Nünlist (Account Director), Lea Schneider (Junior Account Manager), Gordon Nemitz (Head of Strategy and Partners), Carole Räber, Fabienne Peyer (Strategy), Benjamin Calcott (Producing). External partners:inside: Nathan Saurer (Director), 23bis (Film Production) Lionel Moerch, Arsène Gaillard, Mila Francioso, Manuel Troxler, Yafet Tesfa, Sina Lou Ravasio (Editing), Marco Frei (DoP), Simon Wottreng (Gaffer), Mediaschneider (Media Agency), Dominique Schilling (Senior Media Consultant), Tarek Al Faiech (Senior Media Consultant), Xavier Diaz (Senior Programmatic Buying Manager).
