Launching a student-led healthcare app
Services PROVIDED:
CAMPAIGN strategy
CAMPAIGN identity
MESSAGING
ART DIRECTION
Marketing Assets
Challenge
Willo is a new app created to help students locate, access and book mental health resources at UC San Diego. While building awareness for Willo was a primary goal, the campaign also aimed to address a key barrier to adoption: the misconception that mental health services are only for solving existing problems. Instead, we wanted to position Willo as a tool all students can benefit from proactively, helping them maintain well-being before challenges arise.
Insight
Students look to their peers when deciding whether to try services they’re hesitant about.
Solution
A campaign featuring student voices was created to build trust and deliver the message in an authentic and engaging way.
CAMPAIGN STRATEGY
Helping students manage mental health resources
Willo was created to help busy students proactively manage their health and well-being. To drive awareness and adoption of the app we developed a marketing campaign designed to appeal to all students, focused on the fact that Willo was designed by UCSD students for UCSD students.
CAMPAIGN IDENTITY
Merging three brands for one audience
Willo is a UCSD campus app, developed through a partnership between the computer science and Health System teams—all of whom have their own brand identities. So developing a campaign identity that balanced the three, while standing out as a distinct product, was an early challenge. Our solution is a vibrant, colorful approach that borrows from all three, but leans heavily into the campus brand, since that’s where the campaign lives.
Final deliverables
Campaign playbook
Our initial engagement included the first set of tactics to help set the standard for future campaign materials. The final deliverable was a campaign playbook that defined the copy and photo direction, and included instructions for future application plus a set of templates for the internal marketing teams.
Graphic assets
A truly authentic image library
Our primary goal with the campaign photography was to capture an authentic, emotional representation of real students. In fact, every student featured in the campaign played a key role in developing the app—from engineering and coding to UI design. The candid style conveys the feeling of freedom and ease students feel when they have access to the many wellness opportunities available on campus. The images aim to reflect the tone of the Willo brand—natural, relaxed and confident, with an occasional touch of whimsy.
brand application
Campaign messaging and rollout
To reinforce the student-endorsed strategy, the messaging delivered student benefits in their voice. Quick and casual statements summed up key features of the Willo app and photography was tagged with the student identification complete with year, major and focus. The bulk of the campaign was rolled out via on-campus signage, university digital properties and social media, weaving the Willo message into the everyday lives of students.
CONCLUSION
The final word
“Willo is designed specifically to address the mental health needs of our diverse community,” said UCSD Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “This trailblazing app prioritizes student health and well-being, with a strong focus on mental health support.”
