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Indigenous Australians report mental health problems at a much higher rate than non-Indigenous Australians. However, rather than more services, it has been proposed that there should be a positive, socially based approach to improving mental health in Indigenous communities. The population-wide Western Australian Act-Belong-Commit mental health promotion campaign appeared to be consistent with such an approach. Hence, after consultation with Indigenous community members, a culturally adapted version of the campaign was developed and launched in a largely Indigenous remote Australian community. A survey of Indigenous community members was conducted two years later to assess campaign impact. The aim of this paper is to report on the impact on community members of this cultural adaptation.

Intercept interviews were conducted with Indigenous community members (n = 31) to assess respondents’ awareness of the campaign elements and activities, understanding of campaign messages and whether respondents had undertaken activities to improve their own or their family’s social and emotional well-being as a result of the campaign.

There was universal awareness of the adapted campaign in this sample, with 81% reporting doing something for their own social and emotional well-being, 74% reporting doing something for the social and emotional well-being of their family or friends and 48% reporting doing something for community well-being, as a result of campaign exposure.

The cultural adaptation of the Act-Belong-Commit campaign in the Australian Roebourne community is the first reported Indigenous adaptation of a population-wide mental health promotion campaign.

Mentally Healthy WA developed and implemented the Mentally Healthy Schools Framework in 2010 in response to demand from schools wanting to promote the community-based Act-Belong-Commit mental health promotion message within a school setting. Schools are an important setting for mental health promotion, therefore, the Framework encourages schools to adopt a whole-of-school approach to mental health promotion based on the World Health Organisation’s Health Promoting Schools framework. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A process evaluation was conducted consisting of six-monthly activity reports from 13 participating Western Australian schools. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with key school contacts in November 2011 with nine schools who had signed partner agreements prior to July 2011.

The schools valued promoting the mentally healthy message and the majority felt the programme was implemented successfully. More intensive implementation was facilitated by a proactive and enthusiastic school “champion” who had influence over other staff, and who did not have too many competing priorities. Factors inhibiting implementation included a lack of effective time management, lack of whole school commitment, and evaluation demands.

Act-Belong-Commit is a positive, proactive message making it easier for teachers to talk about mental health with their students. For schools reporting implementation success, the Mentally Healthy Schools Framework raised the profile of mental health in the school setting and fostered a sense of belonging among students.

Maximising return on naming rights sponsorships is important for social marketing campaigns with limited funds. Naming rights allow the sponsor’s brand to be aligned with the event name in text and visual promotional materials. For visual displays, either the brand logo or the brand name in words can be aligned with the event name. As the Act–Belong–Commit mental health promotion campaign’s logo encapsulates the brand name, a study was conducted to assess the relative impact on recall of “Act–Belong–Commit” as part of a sponsored event name, when the logo was aligned with the event name versus when the brand name in only words was aligned with the event name.

An intercept survey was conducted with n = 112 adult university students. Participants were presented with one of the above two branding alignments for the sponsored event. The image was removed from view, a distracter question asked and participants were asked to recall the name of the event.

Recall of the Act–Belong–Commit brand in full as part of the name of the event was significantly and substantially greater for participants exposed to the words only alignment versus the logo alignment: 52 vs 7 per cent (p < 0.000).

Given these findings, the campaign has adopted the policy of using the words Act–Belong–Commit alongside the event name rather than the logo in future naming rights sponsorships.

It is recommended that other social marketing brands with similar brand/logo designs undertake research to ensure optimal return on naming rights sponsorships.