Medibank launches Untangle to sell mental fitness, with Colenso BBDO

Feeling tangled

Medibank launched Untangle on 13 October 2026, a national campaign and long-term platform on what it calls mental fitness. The campaign was created with Colenso BBDO on creative, Dentsu on media and Eleven on public relations and social.^[1] It runs nationally across television, out-of-home, social and content partnerships with news.com.au and Mamamia.^[1]

Medibank Chief Marketing Officer Geoff Ikin said "feeling tangled is something most people instinctively recognise when something does not feel right, however knowing what to do next can be much harder."^[2]

Where the $100 million fits

The launch comes a week after Medibank added $50 million to its mental health spending to mark its 50th anniversary, taking its total commitment to $100 million over five years. That money also goes to its Virtual Psychology Clinic, hospital mental health programs and a partnership with Smiling Mind.^[3] Chief executive David Koczkar said then: "We believe mental fitness is just as important as physical fitness."^[3] Medibank has not said how much of the $100 million goes to Untangle itself.

Colenso BBDO Group Strategy Director James Tucker said the brief presented a specific creative problem. "Because mental health is often communicated as a binary, where you are either struggling or you are not, the challenge was making that idea of mental fitness something people would embrace and advocate for," Tucker said.^[2] Colenso BBDO Chief Creative Officer Simon Vicars said "This idea captures the way many of us feel but can't always explain."^[2]

Untangle builds directly on the 2025 Family Roast card game, also by Colenso BBDO, which was designed to start conversations at the dinner table.^[2] Family Roast was a single product; Untangle is pitched as a platform that will run for years. No campaign outcome data has been released for either initiative.