McCann Worldgroup and Cigna inspire the world to see stress differently
LONDON – 20 September 2019 – McCann Worldgroup has partnered with Cigna International Markets in their latest initiative, which is helping the world see stress differently. The Stress Visualization Experience was unveiled at a global launch event in London, which took place on Thursday 19 September. The first-of-its-kind technology visualizes the physical signs of stress in the body and mind in real-time, using a ground-breaking composition of biometric data and digital art to educate the public about how stress not only affects us emotionally, but physically too.
According to the 2019 Cigna 360 Well-Being Survey, 84% of the world population suffers from stress*, but what many people don’t realize is that stress is constantly impacting both body and mind. Furthermore, the physical symptoms are often invisible until stress turns into chronic stress, a leading contributor to severe long-term conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, and insomnia.
To make the invisible visible, McCann Worldgroup and Cigna collaborated with doctors, technologists and renowned digital artist, Sean Sullivan, to build proprietary stress visualization kits to help people see the signs of stress on the body and mind for the first time. Each kit gathers a user’s stress readings using an EEG headband that detects Alpha and Beta brainwave activity, a heart rate sensor and a Galvanic Skin Response sensor to measure stress-related skin conductance.
These readings then flow into an algorithm which interprets the data into an artistic motion portrait that dynamically changes shape and color in real-time to reflect your overall stress at that moment. The visualization aims to raise awareness of stress’s impact on your physical health, however, it is not intended to be a diagnostic tool for chronic stress.
The Stress Visualization Experience was unveiled at a Cigna’s “See Stress Differently” event in London on 19 September, featuring a panel presentation moderated by television presenter Gabby Logan, with experts Dr. Peter Mills, Geoff McDonald and Samantha Smith. The event included a live visualization kit for attendees to experience themselves. The tour will continue to key markets around the world over the coming months and throughout 2020, supported by a global ad campaign and planning tools to help people manage their stress proactively.
Heather Valteris, Chief Marketing Officer, Cigna International Markets, says:
“Our survey data shows a rising incidence of stress across the world, and with chronic stress now widely recognized as a leading contributor to serious illness, we felt the need to inspire preventative care action for all people, not just our customers. The Stress Visualization Experience is a huge step forward in helping people to see stress as a physical health issue, not just an emotional one. If we start to see stress differently, we can start to take control of it in our everyday lives.”
As the lead agency for Cigna International Markets, McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong created the campaign, pulling in specialist teams from its network — McCann, MRM//McCann, McCann Health and CRAFT, and from multiple offices — New York, Singapore, Bangkok, Taipei, Dubai and Johannesburg.
Brandon Cheung, CEO McCann Worldgroup Hong Kong, adds:
“The partnership between McCann Worldgroup and Cigna over the years has been built on a shared belief that global brands have the power to positively impact the world. Continuing in this direction, we believe the Stress Visualization Experience will help reverse the global trend on stress and preventable illnesses caused by stress.”
*”Cigna 360 Global Well-Being Survey,” Cigna, 2019, https://wellbeing.cigna.com/. Based on Cigna 360 Global Well-being survey of 13,200 people across 23 markets: Australia, Benelux, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, New Zealand, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, UK and USA.
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View the campaign here:
Stress Visualizations Behind The Scenes: https://youtu.be/RMmLudP_Q8w
Stress Care Website: https://comms.cigna.com/mystressplan
About McCann Worldgroup:
McCann Worldgroup, part of the Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), is a leading global marketing solutions network with over 20,000 employees united across 100+ countries by a single vision: To help brands play a meaningful role in people’s lives. McCann Worldgroup was recognized by the Cannes Lions as the 2019 Network of the Year and by the Effies as the world’s most creatively-effective marketing services company both in 2018 and 2019. The network comprises McCann (advertising), MRM//McCann (science/technology/relationship marketing), Momentum Worldwide (total brand experience), McCann Health (professional/dtc communications), CRAFT (production), Weber Shandwick (public relations) and FutureBrand (consulting/design).
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