Here's a client commissioned rant that puts our covid sniffles in perspective

Work from home is the most common outcome of COVID, globally that has resulted in blurred lines between one’s professional and personal lives. With the ongoing third wave, many people seem to have normalised COVID and its impact.

Digital health platform for men, Man Matters, has rolled out an ad film, featuring stand-up comedian Kumar Varun. In the four-minute rant, Varun encapsulates the emotional turbulence of those employees, who are forced to work despite being COVID positive.

The video begins with an online conference call, where the employees are wished a speedy recovery and asked to take care of themselves. Cut to reality, the employees continue to work from home, like before, in order to meet clients' deadlines.

Commenting on the latest ad, Revant Bhate, co-founder and CEO, Mosaic Wellness, says that it is harder for men to openly talk about their mental and sexual health. Mosaic Wellness is the parent company of Man Matters.

“The insight around our latest campaign is that men don’t open up easily and need a platform to express themselves. While they are physically the stronger gender, they are often ridiculed when they try to express their emotional concerns.”

Prior to co-founding Mosaic Wellness, Bhate was a partner at Kstart, Kalaari Capital's seed program, wherein he invested in multiple B2C businesses. As an entrepreneur, he has also helped build Rebel Foods over a period of five years. There he donned multiple roles like CFO, CMO and created new brands for Rebel Foods.

COVID symptoms in the third wave have been milder, as compared to those in the first two waves. However, a COVID-positive person still experiences a lot of emotional trauma. Most of them are hesitant to talk about it, or seek help.

Man Matters’ film attempts to break this feeling of hesitancy and convey that no deadlines are more important than your, and your family’s well-being.

The film is an extension of Man Matters’ campaign #LetsTalkMan, which was first launched on International Men’s Day in 2021. The ad, titled #MenDontTalk, featured Divyenndu Sharma, of Mirzapur fame. Its aim was to start conversations around physical health and well-being.

As people age, they start experiencing many lifestyle-related issues, like grey hair, hair loss, and polycystic ovary syndrome or PCOS (in women). All these issues may not need any medication and can be easily managed with minimal lifestyle changes.

This led Bhate to come up with Mosaic Wellness in 2019. It operates two digital platforms: manmatters.com and bebodywise.com for men’s and women’s health & wellness, respectively. The reason for having a separate vertical for men and women, Bhate points out, is to have different platforms that are consumer-centric, than clubbing all the services into one.

The brand focuses on addressing certain lifestyle-related issues and taboos associated with them. The platforms offer relatable content around health & wellness to educate people in the right manner. They have also built communities to provide people, with similar issues, a common platform to communicate and let go of their inhibitions.

Doctor, or expert consultations, is another offering that the two platforms offer to help the users with their health and wellness journey. They have also recently diversified into providing nutritional supplements and products that can help keep these lifestyle-related issues in check.

Bhate informs that these days, lifestyle-related issues are starting at a much younger age than before. This is because people tend to ignore their health when they are young, which results in problems later in life.

The precise target group for Man Matters lies in the age group of 24-35 years. It is the age bracket the campaign will resonate with most, feels the brand. It is when one’s career is at an early stage and one may feel afraid to put forth their concerns.

Spring Marketing Capital is the agency behind the campaign. Bhate says that the best part of working with Spring Marketing Capital was that it is also an investor in the company. Arun Iyer and Raja Ganapathy, the co-founders, already knew what the brand stands for and wants to communicate. The ad was jointly conceptualised by both the agency and the brand.

Bhate tells that the digital video has been shared on LinkedIn and WhatsApp because people can relate to it as they may have even faced similar situations themselves.

This is a digital-first initiative by the brand and it will not use any traditional media channels, for now. Bhate adds, “The purpose of this campaign was to not put a lot of advertising money behind it, but come up with a strong message that gets shared organically.”

According to the platform, the largest concern that men face is regarding their sexual health. It is rarely spoken about and people don’t realise that it is a big problem. As per Bhate, about 10 per cent of the sexual health cases that are addressed on the Man Matters platform, are actually brought forward by family members as most men feel shy to talk to a doctor about it.

The second biggest problem is hair loss, which is more frequently addressed by men than women. There is a lot of worry around loss of hair and how society equates it to masculinity.

In the months to come, Man Matters will launch more digital-first campaigns that will highlight some other male concerns and, hence, encourage the gender to speak about topics that are often traditionally considered taboo in Indian society. “The first stage of seeking help is to acknowledge you need help and, therefore, that will be our focus,” Bhate signs off.

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