Our campaign got the earned media attention it truly deserved and we hope future endeavours will continue to empower women to feel safe and comfortably breastfeeding or pumping wherever they are.

- We triggered social debate and generated (inter)national media attention

- Made moms feel more welcome to breastfeed in public wherever they go

- Made Elvie visible & grew awareness of the brand’s goals

- With no paid (social) media support.

And following the campaign, Elvie saw some of the highest levels of conversation online about their brand and received requests from others to get involved or collaborate.

Since 2013, Elvie has led the femtech category by delivering groundbreaking innovations to support women in their everyday lives and change conversations around women’s health. Elvie specifically wants to normalise breastfeeding in public.

The brief for us:

- Generate media attention during World Breastfeeding Week

- Make Elvie visible & grow awareness of the brand’s goals?

While #breastfeeding has been on the rise in Belgium, there is, unfortunately, still a huge taboo around public feeding. Elvie believes that all moms should be able to breastfeed or pump in public without fear or judgment. In came the Elvie Breastfeeding Bench!

The first breastfeeding bench was placed ik Kortrijk during World Breastfeeding Week and was launched together with the#BreastPlaces map, to empower women to feel safe and comfortable breastfeeding or pumping in public and encourage the Belgian public to support this.

When talking to breastfeeding mums, we discovered most preferred to breastfeed at home because they were afraid of stares and comments they (might) receive. Together with Elvie we felt the need to take this topic out of the dark ages and designed the Elvie Breastfeeding Bench. This bench encourages women to feed or pump in public, because it is the most natural thing in the world. We integrated an armrest, some toys and a changing pad to make the public experience as comfortable and pleasant as possible. 

The Elvie Breastfeeding Bench was installed on the Grote Markt in Kortrijk during the month of August (the month in which World Breastfeeding Week takes place) and moved to Brussels later upon the city councils request for a second wave.

One bench to prove a point, that women can actually breastfeed their kid anywhere they want.

The launch of the Elvie Breastfeeding Bench presented us with a couple of challenges: how do we prevent the media from picking on this negatively, as every bench should in fact be considered a possible Breastfeeding Bench? How to reach a broad selection of media without being considered a stunt? How can we support our press release with figures on breastfeeding in Belgium, given that Elvie is a British brand and didn't have any Belgian figures? The launch of the bench is certainly a good thing, but how do we make women feel truly welcome in public places? Through the tone of voice in our press release we made clear that the launch of the bench is a playful yet powerful message. That this one bench symbolises a first decisive step towards making breastfeeding mums feel welcome wherever they go, because of course every bench IS indeed a breastfeeding bench.

Through the tone of voice in our press release we made clear that the launch of the bench is a playful yet powerful message. That this one bench symbolises a first decisive step towards making breastfeeding mums feel welcome wherever they go, because of course every bench IS indeed a breastfeeding bench. 

We joined forces with Kind & Gezin - a non-profit volunteer organisation providing help and support to families and expectant parents in Belgium - and obtained recent data on breastfeeding in Belgium to support our press release. We sent out the press release under embargo to both regional and national press 2 weeks before the actual launch of the bench. 

The triggered social debate assisted our efforts further generating additional media attention.

And in support we also launched our #BreastPlaces platform, a collaborative map to places where young parents can feed & nurse in peace.

Our campaign was a huge coverage hit. Exceeding our KPIs by a wide margin, our story was covered by (inter)national media. Our local story was also picked up by media in France, Turkey, the Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Hungary and Slovakia amongst others. 

Following the campaign, Elvie saw some of the highest levels of conversation online about their brand and received requests from others to get involved or collaborate. The city of Brussels intends to place several Elvie breastfeeding benches across town and others have also shown interest. 

- +55 qualitative local media pieces generated 7.8M reach? (which is massive considering our small media landscape)

- Incredible coverage uplift (+536% YOY) from a +99% YOY budget increase?

- Doubled website traffic during the campaign periods ?

- Resulting in significant sales uplift for Elvie in Belgium?

- And the best news: Brussels is the first of several cities to install the same benches

And to date the bench continues to get the attention it genuinely deserves.

When talking to breastfeeding mums, we discovered most preferred to breastfeed at home because they were afraid of stares and comments they might receive. Together with Elvie we felt the need to take this topic out of the dark ages and therefor designed the Elvie Breastfeeding Bench to trigger social debate a playful yet powerful way and encourage the Belgian public to support this.

This bench (and the supporting #BreastPlaces map) encourages women to feed or pump in public, because it is the most natural thing in the world. We integrated an armrest, some toys and a changing pad to make the public experience as comfortable and pleasant as possible.

So one bench to prove a point, that women can actually breastfeed their kid anywhere they want and feel safe and comfortable while doing so.