Escape The Loop

BACKGROUND
OCD is a term commonly used, but not commonly understood. Thanks to pop culture, it is thrown around casually when referring to being overly tidy or organized.

But OCD isn’t an adjective - it’s a serious mental health disorder causing people to suffer from intensely negative and intrusive thoughts as well as repetitive actions – and the first signs typically show when you’re a teenager. 



For young people, early diagnosis and treatment are essential. However, most don’t seek help as they aren’t aware of the symptoms.
 So how could we create OCD awareness and make teens seek treatment before their OCD would worsen?

IDEA
In the task to create OCD awareness among youth, a major challenge was to find a platform and visual language that teens can relate with. 
From the insight that youths often use GIFs to express a feeling or emotion, combined with the fact that a GIF per definition is a repetitive loop, 
the GIPHY-based campaign “Escape the Loop” was created. 


While most uploads on GIPHY are in fact GIFs, we discovered that it’s also possible to upload short MP4 videos. This was a game changer because it enabled us to create longer narratives. So while they may start with repeating actions as any GIF would, they unfold with our campaign message showing that there is a way out of the vicious loop of OCD.



We developed more than 50 small films, flooding GIPHY with situations covering the most typical compulsive actions, such as opening and closing a door, aligning things, checking that the stove is off, and excessive counting. Instead of just looping, we let every loop evolve and carry a hidden message about the symptom of OCD portrayed in the film, followed by a call to action.

We furthermore tagged each of the GIFs with relevant search terms, which let our message appear in thousands of daily searches on GIPHY. All loops linked to our campaign site to educate teens of signs of OCD, as well directing them to local helplines by geo-targeting.

RESULTS
The youth-focused Escape The Loop campaign reached more than one million views organically on GIPHY, before being launched formally during the OCD Awareness Week 2022 (October 10 to 16.) Currently, the number of views have reached and educated more than 4 million people about signs of OCD. All without any media spend.