Insight
The high desire of parenthood is not reflected on the actual fertility rate because being a good parent in Hong Kong can never be harder! Small and crowded living spaces, inflation, prolonged working hours and the competitive culture made young couples doubt their capability to raise a child. Sadly, many couples hesitate and opt out as they are not confident that they can give the best for their kids.
Wyeth Materna empathized with their fear and so with the help of OMD - which believes that starting a family should always be a blessing, not a burden - made it its mission to help the young couples and turn their desire of parenthood into reality.
Strategy
To communicate with young couples effectively, OMD needed to capture the right moment in the middle of their hectic lives, the instances when they fantasize about ‘moments’ with their baby, igniting their desire for parenthood. However, fantasies are intangible and short-lived, making it incredibly challenging to sustain that determination. They needed to create a long-lasting emotional bond that would turn desire into actions.
So to help young couples believe in the beauty of parenthood, OMD gave them a strong emotional encounter with their future baby to vividly experience the joy of having a family. “A message from your future baby” was their simulated parenting experience that took young couples’ emotions through the first taste of parenthood.
Afterall, parenthood fantasies are randomly triggered by everyday encounters, like bumping into a cute baby on the street or passing by a baby store - but the desire never lasts long. That’s why OMD turned to a mobile-led media strategy, which enabled them to capture all the flashing moments and extend couples’ desire for as long as possible. The agency also leveraged social media platforms to allow the couples to spread their passion.
Execution
OMD's communication started with a self-scoring form for planning mums recruited through various digital platforms to evaluate their pre-natal nutrition condition.
By submitting their headshots to Materna’s mobile customized Facebook application, the 3D recognition technology sculpted the facial characteristics of the young couples, enabling them to meet their future baby, who inherited Mum’s gorgeous smile and Dad’s tiny eyes, for the very first time.
But the true beauty of pregnancy was much more than the anticipation of giving birth; it was really about bonding with the baby, starting when baby and parents gaze into each other’s eyes for the first time. Thanks to smartphone’s motion detection technology, future baby followed her parents with her eyes, a genuine sign of a baby recognizing her parents. The first eye contact, the spontaneous giggles, all the interactions were too heart-warming not to share, and share again.
To reach more young couples, OMD launched Hong Kong’s first outdoor mobile photo studio, where young parents took their first family photo with their future baby and learnt about pre-natal planning.
However, maximizing the desire for parenthood was not enough - the agency needed to break the psychological barriers that prevented HK couples from starting a family. With a message sent by the future baby, OMD reminded young couples that a family was about supporting each other. To feel the joy of having a family, they needed to take a step forward - that is to start pre-natal nutritional care, with the professional support from Wyeth Materna.
Results
The sustained excitement effectively engaged young couples from a future baby’s point of view.
In just 6 weeks, HK couples gave birth to over 10,000 future babies with 90% of them sharing the joy of parenthood via social media, equivalent to 18% of 2013’s HK new-born babies. This was a big boost for a small city with only 7 million people, which same time had a rapidly aging population.
The increased desire for parenthood was also proven by the fact that over 40% of couples who engaged with their future babies were planning for pregnancy within the next 3 years. Moreover, with over 5,700 self-evaluation completed and over 4,600 pre-natal tips (sent by future baby) read, OMD reminded them to get physically ready with Wyeth Materna to welcome their baby.
The agency also created a profound impact in parenting communities. Engaged with over 20 social influencers who shared their feelings and experiences through social media platforms, future baby generated over HKD 355K of free PR. Through their communities, OMD reached over 180K parents-to-be, the equivalent of 16% of HK’s marriageable population. All of these engagements benefited the business directly with sales increased by 96% year on year.
But most importantly, future baby encouraged potential parents to take one brave step forward to embrace the joy of creating a family!