In Britain, parenting retailer Mothercare has always been an iconic name. Once a leader in the field, they were known as the one-stop-shop for everything a parent needs - from support and advice to products and services.

Today, in the midst of a brutal retail environment, Mothercare has struggled to connect with the people that matter most - parents. Stores are shutting and the British media have repeatedly speculated that they will be the next high street retailer to fail.

Our task has been to reconnect with parents, bring back the love for Mothercare, and start to rebuild trust in the brand by demonstrating that Mothercare understands, cares and acts upon the issues faced by parents. In short, this is a story of putting care back into the heart of Mothercare.

Mothers have undergone a major transformation to create life. A feat to be celebrated, rather than a source of shame or inadequacy. For Mothercare, part of supporting parents is demonstrating an understanding of the issues they face and ensuring they are fairly and realistically represented.

#BodyProudMums took the bold step of smashing advertising and social media conventions of only showing perfect snapback bodies. Instead, the reality of the postpartum body, in all of its different glorious manifestations, is on display, normalising each individual’s experience and celebrating how incredible their bodies truly are. This point is hammered home with the simple headline ‘Beautiful, isn’t she.’, directly challenging the viewer to reconsider their preconceptions of beauty, and how women are represented.

This would spark positive and necessary conversation about the postpartum body and the representation of women, and reassure mothers they’re not alone, helping them feel confident in their own, miraculous bodies.

Our proprietary research unearthed some worrying statistics.

80% of mothers compare themselves to those around them, and images in the media.

81% of mums attribute feelings of inadequacy to the lack of realistic images of post-birth bodies in the media.

78% of mums think unrealistic body ideals can be a factor in postnatal depression.

57% of mums feel embarrassed by how pregnancy has affected their bodies.

If the reality of the postpartum body is never represented, and all mothers see are images of celebrities and other mothers “bouncing back”, this creates feelings of inadequacy and can cause postnatal depression.

The strategy was to stop the “bounce-back” body myths and tackle the “reality gap”. By celebrating the post-partum body in a series of portraits distributed through social media, online and in the press, our ambition was to spark a positive conversation with new mums, dads, and body-positivity activists.

It was vital that we reflect real mums with a diverse range of post-birth bodies. Having held open casting calls, the campaign launched with a series of ten portraits for a 2 week period across the London Underground, PR, social and the mothercare website.

Our photographer pledged in 2017 not to digitally manipulate skin in her work. We chose her for this photographic honesty, simplicity of style, and critically, her ability to capture the pure emotion of non-professional sitters.

The execution is ruthlessly pared back. The simple statement ‘Beautiful, isn’t she.’ provokes, while the mother’s name and weeks postpartum tell the viewer this is a real mum.

Where appropriate, the portraits were accompanied by the mothers’ stories. These personal accounts of how the mothers felt about their bodies were hand-written in journals while on the shoot and further enhance the empathy and emotional connection with all mothers.

Results to date:

REACH

50x the reach we paid for. 787 million total impressions, of which only 15.5 million were paid.

Cost per potential reach = £0.0002

Facebook brand uplift survey showed +12.44pts in brand awareness (average 7.44pts) - Facebook said they’d never seen results like this.

BRAND

People loved it. Extensively engaging with the campaign which led to an uplift in brand metrics:

19% uplift in "Mothercare is a brand that cares for parents”

20% uplift in "Mothercare understands parenting issues”

18% uplift in "Mothercare is a brand I love”

BUSINESS

+2.8% market share increase from the period immediately before the campaign

MOST IMPORTANTLY

Our mothers responded to the campaign:

“I needed to see this today”

“It makes me feel human again”

“This campaign helps me realize I am not alone”

OVERALL

Not bad for a campaign that only cost £157,212 all-in (media, creative, and PR)