The grim reality is that a strong heritage with past parents counts for little when your consumer base is constantly changing. And as you might expect, Gen Y Parents are different.

They are constantly searching for info and advice but are instinctively sceptical of information from big brands telling them what is best. Instead, they love to ‘discover’ new parenting products and strategies; and to share these with a select, local community of other parents. What we discovered about this info-hungry, sharing mindset is that it does not happen in a vacuum: new parents were leaving an insight-rich trail for us to follow.

We built our entire strategy on the rich vein of insights in search data.

Search data guided where and when to talk to parents, the language to use, topics they sought out and the formats they engaged with, but most importantly who the message should come from.

We engaged 33 influencers across a 9-month period to write content based on our insights. We armed our writers, editors and mummy-bloggers with a brief containing the keywords, topic areas and content formats that we knew were resonating with our audience.

We gave them infographics, nutritional guidance advice, and information on the role of natural, packaged food in modern parenthood; all designed to be shared by mums with their own communities. Then we allowed them free rein to tell our stories in their own voice; spreading the word to their (vast and trusting) networks.

This approach enabled Heinz to initiate a number of authentic, relevant conversations about the parental challenges faced every day.

Our influencers wrote 70 unique pieces of content with topics including, “13 things I’d rather do than puree pumpkin” and “11 chores you can skip to spend more time with your kids”.

Brand equity grew 6% YOY. Our key competitor dropped 17%. Conversion from consideration to usage increased +8%pts

To more specifically track campaign impact, we commissioned pre-and-post research. The results were striking. Prompted brand consideration jumped from 63% pre-campaign, to 73% post-campaign. The statement “A brand I trust” (normally a difficult measure to improve quickly) rose from 58% to 63%. And 56% said that they were now “More likely to purchase”.

Our data-led influencer approach has been re-commissioned for 2016, building on the most influential and successful content themes from 2015.

This campaign is proof that smart data analysis can reimagine media – combining the art and science of communication.