The media investment and mix is largely the same for this year’s Bell Let’s Talk campaign, but there are two notable differences: a bigger focus on social reach, and integrating an annual TV special into one of Bell Media’s existing shows.

Creative for this year’s campaign to spark discussion about mental health is focused on people offering one another support through settings as varied as the home, the workplace, school, a group therapy session and even a martial arts gym.

According to Mary Deacon, chair of Bell Let’s Talk, the workplace is an important focus, as that’s where we spend most of our waking lives.

It has also been a particular source of stress for many over the last two years, be it due to questions about job security, maintaining performance during an already mentally taxing pandemic or struggling to maintain work-life balance while working from home.

Bell is acknowledging this by doing organic outreach for Let’s Talk for the first time on LinkedIn, where more conversations about mental health in the workplace – as well as steps employers are or should be taking – are happening.

“Many more companies are stepping up and taking action to support the mental health and wellbeing of their employee base,” she says. This includes Bell itself, and, according to Deacon, it has been hearing from its own employees about how important mental health supports are.

Bell Media will also feature special mental health content in English and French across its TV, radio and digital properties as part of the Bell Let’s Talk Day campaign, including a special Bell Let’s Talk Day episode of Etalk, as well as French documentaries, Maman, pourquoi tu pleures? available on Crave, Canal Vie and Noovo.ca, and La santé mentale dans le sport professionnel on Noovo. The sports documentary will also be made available through RDS’ on-demand platforms at a later date.

That’s another slight departure for Bell, which has created a separate, standalone English primetime special in previous years. By, in effect, turning an episode of Etalk into its own special on mental health, it helps reach a different audience. It will still be “about real people, lives and experiences,” but more focused on people in the public eye. “It’s a different way of bringing the stories of people into the conversation,” Deacon says, an idea that also applies to the French documentaries.

Buying for this year’s campaign was handled by Media Experts, with Lg2 on the creative.

An earlier version of this story stated that the campaign included a paid buy on LinkedIn. Bell is using the platform for organic reach, with views of its video and shares of the hashtag on the platform also counting towards its donation total. Media in Canada regrets the error.