Huggies Brazil is the segment’s first brand to shift its focus to mothers other than the babies, positioning itself as a loyal partner in all the challenges of motherhood. As Mother’s Day approached the client wanted to reinforce this proposal and asked for something that could inspire moms and every woman who wishes to become one. That’s when we came across a fact: among the nearly 3 million women that become pregnant each year in Brazil close to 45,600 are visually impaired and end up missing the most beautiful moment of pregnancy: meeting their unborn baby for the first time during the ultrasound exam. So we decided to use technology to turn this possible and offer this experience to real blind moms-to-be as a way of proving the brand’s commitment. Combining a standard 4D ultrasound exam and a 3D printer we made it possible to touch and feel the unborn baby exactly as he/she was, bringing these women an unforgettable moment. Their real stories became an online film campaign (including versions with audio description for the visually impaired) run by Huggies all over the world reinforcing the brand’s simple and powerful truth: every mom deserves to embrace each moment.

By uniting two kinds of widespread, well known technologies (4D ultrasound exam + 3D printing) we provided a way of social inclusion for visually impaired moms-to-be, turning something cold and lifeless into a way of strengthening the most important human bond: mother and son. The creative output is the result of a data-based idea that can be replicated and turned into a scalable product by any hospital or clinic around the world from today on and that is already being referred as a benchmark in prenatal care. The campaign telling the true story of the project hit at least 30 countries and more than 9 million YouTube views in less than a week. “Meeting Murilo” generated US$ 12+ million worth in earned media and 2.3 billion impressions including segments in The Huffington Post, Time Magazine, People Magazine, ABC TV, CBS News, CNN, FOX News, New York Daily News, UK Daily Mail, The Telegraph, Mirror, RTL Nieuws, Rede Globo, Mashable, BuzzFeed, FastCompany, C|Net, Reddit and more. But most importantly, it inspired women all over the world to share Huggies’ message and express their pride of being a mother.

To truly engage our target audience in an emotional way we needed to tell a true story. So we went in search of visually impaired women with their babies on the way and took 4 of them for a routine ultrasound exam. Therefore we could generate the data we needed: a real scan of their unborn babies, all of them 21 to 30 weeks old, using a standard 4D ultrasound machine currently found in hospitals and clinics all over the world. As the idea had its core in the real exam data there was no need for new technologies or non-standard medical procedures.

Common 4D ultrasound machines generate a standard universal “.dicom” file containing the baby scan. We needed to turn it into a 3D printable file while keeping it accurate and identical to the original data. So we used a 3D modeling software to open it and re-create the baby with attention to every physiognomy details including its actual position inside the uterus. After the 3D model was ready we turned it into a real-size sculpture using a standard-type 3D printer. The idea was to make something anatomic, easy to hold and we even added a braille inscription: “Hello Mom, I’m your son”. The piece was wrapped in a baby blanket and delivered to each Mom by surprise. Their natural reactions became the center of each film in the campaign, bringing the brand’s proposal in a whole new way of touching our target.