Teen-centric app’s video campaign to address isolation, social anxiety among 13 to 21 year olds

video campaign to address isolation, anxiety among teens

Wizz, the social media app that provides teens with a safe space to meet and chat with new friends around the world, has released a new YouTube video campaign that addresses the feelings of disconnection and loneliness experienced among teens, who make up its core user base of 13–21-year-olds. The company worked with Paris-based advertising agency Biborg to produce the video. 

Wizz was developed by mobile gaming giant Voodoo and consistently ranks among the Apple App Store’s top 10–15 social networking apps. Since its launch in 2019, Wizz has facilitated more than 10 billion conversations across its 16 million users. In September 2023, the app hit a new milestone: 1.5 million daily active users (DAU). 

Its new video campaign is a public extension of an important dialogue among Wizz’s users, who often express sentiments of isolation, social anxiety, and low confidence. The ad demonstrates how the app counteracts these feelings by instantly creating opportunities for community, conversations, and connection. 

The 30-second video opens with a teenager settling into her room with nothing to do, when suddenly she receives a notification from a contact on Wizz. The moment she opens up the app, her world opens up, too. Within seconds, she’s no longer alone. She’s meeting new friends, discovering music, trading gaming tips, and sharing bits of life. As the video nears its end, the formerly bored teen is eating popcorn, and her upbeat energy now matches the aspirational pink neon sign on her bedroom wall that reads “good vibes.” 

The campaign concept was inspired by feedback from thousands of Wizz users who completed a one-question, in-app survey asking them to share their best experience using the app. Common themes among their responses were Wizz’s role in helping them meet new best friends, finding people with common interests, increasing their confidence, dealing with social anxiety or introversion, combating boredom and loneliness, reconnecting with old friends, and learning about people in other parts of the world. 

Real, but anonymised, user responses include: “I’ve made a lot of new friends and it’s helped with loneliness.” “Wizz has allowed me to step outside my comfort zone and interact with people.” “I didn’t have any friends before this app.” “Before I got Wizz, I was less confident and very antisocial, but now I’m really confident and I’m very social.” “The biggest help is that this app has given me confidence that I did not have before. I am now more confident to talk to others that I’m not familiar with.” “I have a long-distance bestie, and we have a 307-day streak! We talk literally every day.” 

“Our ad concept revolves around the idea that ‘even when you’re alone, you’re with friends,’” said Jodie Renassia, Head of Growth at Wizz. “Many of today’s teens spent as many as two of their most formative years away from friends and peers during COVID lockdown. This took a toll on their social skills and interpersonal experiences. Our goal with this ad is to show that they’re not alone—literally or figuratively—by putting a world of friends at their fingertips.” 

The new video campaign will run exclusively on YouTube due to the platform’s high volume of users in Wizz’s target age demographic. Ad formats will span in-stream, bumper, non-skippable, and skippable. While some of Wizz’s previous campaigns have focused on attracting new app installs, this campaign aims to create broader brand awareness and reinforce its core mission of expanding users’ worlds.

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Comms Room Staff
Comms Room Staff
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