The Need 

In October 2020, a young person reached out to a member of the New Mexico Governor’s office via text message, asking for help. This message brought the realization that New Mexico was lacking a resource to help youth and teens in the form they are most comfortable with — text message communication.

The Governor teamed up with CYFD to create Reach NM — a number New Mexican children and teens can text for help. Whether it’s struggles with bullying, depression, food scarcity or they just need an empathetic ear, the Reach NM text line connects New Mexico youth to the trained professionals and resources they need, anonymously. 

Immediately after the line launched, CYFD partnered with Esparza to build awareness of the new resource with young people, educators and families. 

The Solution 

With a primary audience of children and teens, the Esparza media team devised a plan that was focused on the social media platforms they frequent — TikTok and Snapchat. The creative team set to work building video assets on an array of topics, including bullying, body image, back to school anxiety, substance abuse and more. The videos were designed to feel native to each platform, as opposed to a traditional ad. 

Using Snapchat’s “swipe to text” functionality, young people were able to text the line directly from the ad placements without leaving the platform. On Tik-Tok, the ads drove to a landing page that felt like a text conversation and encouraged them to save the Reach NM number to their phone. 

The Results

•  TikTok – 9,375,354 impressions, 75,778 clicks and 0.81% 
• Snapchat – 38,616,147 impressions, swipe ups 641,880 and swipe up rate 1.66%
• Tik tok campaign was sending users to website, snap campaign utilized a swipe to text feature
• The best client feedback ever: “When the ads are turned on the floodgates open. When they’re running we consistently get chats from young people every day.”