1. Empathy-First Research

Objective: Understand the lived experiences, cultural idioms, and emotional barriers of the target audience (students & working professionals in India).

Reviewed surveys on workplace/student stress, stigma, and emotional language.

Studied viral memes, trending hashtags, and Indian humour formats (e.g. #SadnessSunday, coffee jokes, Bollywood expressions).

Insight: Emotional truths often hide behind humour and “I’m fine.” Relatability = first crack in the wall.

2. Problem-Awareness Framing

Objective: Anchor all ideas in real, felt problems—loneliness, performance pressure, lack of safe space—not abstract “mental health” messaging.

Focused each piece around one core truth (e.g. “everyone smiles, but not everyone is okay,” or “coffee won’t fix burnout”).

Used metaphors the brain can latch onto quickly: alarms, lifeguards, cracked buckets, etc.

Ensured all creative executions felt like holding up a mirror, not preaching.

3. Format Adaptation (Platform-Native Thinking)

Objective: Reshape deep insights into bite-sized content fit for Instagram, LinkedIn, and Reels.

Used a maximum of 2 lines per Spark idea, built for scroll-stop power.

Paired every line with a visual or tonal cue—e.g., clock, boat, smoke, mirror, etc.—so the message was self-evident even without sound.

Tapped meme structure and voiceover-friendly ideas (e.g. “If ChatGPT were your therapist”).

4. Cultural Code-Switching

Objective: Use Indian-English, Hindi-English idioms, and pop-cultural markers without losing clarity.

Tested hybrid phrasing: “5PM ko office chhodna = mental health ki chhutti.” (familiar rhythm + direct takeaway)

Avoided jargon like “emotional resilience” in favour of phrasing like “smiling outside, crying inside.”

Translated metaphors into both humour and resonance.

5. Campaign Design (Emotional Behavioural Hooks)

Objective: Translate reflection into action—challenges, rituals, micro-community building.

Online: Made wellness visible (e.g. #PauseWithDOST) via story-sharing, not lecturing.

Offline: Built structures (DOST Champions Circle) to decentralise support, lower cost, and scale safety nets via peers.

Designed “small win” rituals (tea break, mindful breath) to replace passive scrolling.

6. Creative AI Collaboration

Objective: Use AI (e.g., ChatGPT) as a collaborative brainstorming tool, not as the message.

Prompted ChatGPT with culturally adapted cues like: “Write 10 Instagram mental health memes in Hinglish for Gen Z students.”

Then rewrote outputs with sharp emotional clarity and storytelling flow.

AI helped explore voice/format variety fast, but final tone always fine-tuned by human.

7. Integrity in Execution

Objective: Keep every output emotionally honest, even in humour.

Avoided trivialising or overly aestheticising mental health struggles.

Checked for tone imbalance: “Is this too dark? Too glib? Too vague?”

Anchored each piece in the promise: “You are not alone. You can talk. And it helps.”