One weird creative challenge: How do you launch an American-Briton meditation app in the land where meditation was invented? At the end of 2021, our brilliant Headspace team worked with Times Bridge — India’s oldest and largest media company — to answer this question.

People in India are working harder than ever, with more stress and pressure in their lives, their jobs, their relationships. Suicide and depression are skyrocketing, especially with younger people.

Carefully navigating the traps and legacy of colonialism, the team side-stepped meditation qua meditation and took the ethos of Headspace to India: make a space, make a moment, to be kind to your mind.

We bannered our simple messages of hope on planes, trains, and autobus stops — plus TV, digital, and oh yes, the front page of the largest English-language newspaper in the world, and maybe others — to massive success in our first launch in Asia.

Impact:

500+ million impressions

277,000 signups

Cost per signup 78% below average