The Breakdown
Medibank · Untangle
Medibank is backing a mental-fitness platform with five years of spend, not just an ad
Medibank's new 'Untangle' platform treats mental fitness as small, everyday actions rather than a crisis moment, and it comes with a promise to keep funding it well past the launch ad.
The TL;DR (too long; didn't read)
- Colenso BBDO built 'Untangle', a national brand platform that reframes feeling overwhelmed as something to work through with everyday actions, following on from Medibank's 'Family Roast' card game.
- The work runs across TV, out-of-home and social, with content partnerships alongside news.com.au and Mamamia.
- Medibank says the platform sits inside a commitment to invest $100 million in mental health over the next five years (a brand-reported spending plan, not a measured result).
01
A platform, not a single ad
'Untangle' follows 'Family Roast', which means this is Medibank's second consecutive piece of mental wellbeing work rather than a standalone campaign.
Building on a previous idea, instead of starting over each year, is how a platform becomes recognisable over time rather than disappearing once the media spend stops.
02
Borrowing trust from the mastheads it appears in
Running content alongside news.com.au and Mamamia, rather than only as paid ads, puts Medibank's message next to publishers readers already treat as credible sources.
That's a different bet to a straight ad buy: it trades some control over the message for the credibility the masthead lends it.
03
A spending commitment isn't a result
The only figure in the coverage is Medibank's own $100 million, five-year investment plan. That tells us how much the brand intends to spend, not whether 'Untangle' is changing how people think or act about mental fitness.
Long-term, slow-building categories like mental health are exactly where that distinction matters: it could take years before there's anything to measure.
Read the original reporting
- Medibank helps Australians ‘Untangle’ in new mental fitness platform via Colenso BBDO ↗
Campaign Brief · 13 Oct 2026
- Medibank Launches Mental Fitness Platform Untangle Via Colenso BBDO ↗
B&T · 13 Oct 2026
The theory bit
The academic ideas that explain what's going on, with the full reference for your assignments.
The long and the short of it
Short-term activation (offers, direct response) drives quick sales spikes; long-term brand building (broad-reach, emotional work) drives lasting growth. Their IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) analysis suggests roughly a 60:40 brand-to-activation budget split as a starting point.
Here: A five-year funding commitment is a long-term brand-building bet rather than a short-term activation, which research suggests needs patience to pay off.
Binet, L. & Field, P. (2013). The Long and the Short of It. IPA.
Customer-based brand equity
A brand's value lives in what customers know about it: how aware they are and how strong, favourable and unique their brand associations are.
Here: The platform aims to build the association 'Medibank helps with everyday mental fitness', beyond its core insurance product.
Keller, K. L. (1993). Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity. Journal of Marketing, 57(1).
Source credibility
Messages from sources seen as expert and trustworthy are more persuasive.
Here: Running content alongside news.com.au and Mamamia borrows credibility from mastheads readers already see as trustworthy sources.
Hovland, C. I. & Weiss, W. (1951). The influence of source credibility on communication effectiveness. Public Opinion Quarterly, 15(4).
Over to you
No right answers here. These are to get you thinking. Jot your ideas down or chat them through.
- 1
Why might building on 'Family Roast' matter more than launching something completely new?
Need a nudge?
Think about what happens to an idea's recognition when a brand starts fresh every year.
- 2
What does Medibank get from running content next to news.com.au and Mamamia that a straight ad buy wouldn't give it?
Need a nudge?
Consider how readers feel about the publication itself.
- 3
Why isn't the $100 million figure itself evidence the campaign is working?
Need a nudge?
Separate what a brand plans to spend from what that spending has achieved so far.
Optional · about 10 minutes
Your mini task
In 60–120 words: pick a brand and describe a multi-year platform (not a single ad) it could build around one everyday problem in its category. Name the first piece of work, one media partner it could run content with, and how you would check in a year whether it's working.