Prior to 2020, women-led businesses were on the rise; with the number of employer firms owned by women growing at 2x the rate of those owned by men between 2014 and 2016. But the pandemic (in all its disruption, supply chain issues, and inflation) made starting and sustaining a small business so much harder and more daunting: with nearly in 1 in 3 small businesses not being able to survive for more than 3 months (without additional capital/change in business conditions).

For women, of course, this was even worse. Women-led businesses were significantly more likely to shut down due to the pandemic than men-led businesses. Coupled with women leaving the workforce overall in record numbers, women were essentially set back employment-wise an entire generation; dubbed the "shecession".

Women now just needed the inspiration, and resources, to help them get going. Our campaign - Moms Mean Business would do just that.

When the pandemic hit, mothers in America bore the brunt of domestic duties, including childcare. As a result, they were forced out or left the workforce. It became even clearer that the system is not set up for them.

ZenBusiness is a tech platform that helps anybody launch, run, and grow their own business. Our objectives were clear: build awareness & acquire customers. But as ZenBusiness is also an equality-based company at heart, we found we could also create an opportunity for positive social change, all while speaking to a pivotal audience – 3.5MM moms had been forced out of the workforce during the pandemic.

We wondered: what if we could help turn moms – who already have all the raw skills to be successful entrepreneurs – into their own bosses, inspiring and supporting them as they took the first key steps towards starting the businesses that could change everything.

Prior to 2020, women-led businesses were on the rise; with the number of employer firms owned by women growing at 2x the rate of those owned by men between 2014 and 2016. But the pandemic (in all its disruption, supply chain issues, and inflation) made starting and sustaining a small business so much harder and more daunting: with nearly in 1 in 3 small businesses not being able to survive for more than 3 months (without additional capital/change in business conditions).

For women, of course, this was even worse. Women-led businesses were significantly more likely to shut down due to the pandemic than men-led businesses. Coupled with women leaving the workforce overall in record numbers, women were essentially set back employment-wise an entire generation; dubbed the "shecession".

Women now just needed the inspiration, and resources, to help them get going. Our campaign - Moms Mean Business would do just that.

The pandemic removed 3.5 million moms from the workforce. We saw an opportunity to help bring them back…on their own terms. But instead of returning to the jobs that already proved they didn’t work for their needs, we helped pave the way for moms to take control by starting their own businesses. To do this, ZenBusiness, a company that helps entrepreneurs start up, took the unprecedented step of offering a free LLC registration to every single mom in America (a $199 value). We backed this up with an empowering campaign in an online video, drawing parallels between the radically empowering acts of childbirth and starting a business - both moments that can lead you to question if you have what it takes up until the moment you’ve succeeded. To educate and inspire, we launched a robust social campaign that spread the alarming statistics behind American mothers’ retreat from the workforce.

Our audience was clear: moms in America who were sick of work not working for them. Already a well-known challenge, the COVID pandemic only made it worse – 3.5MM moms left the workforce. We discovered one-in-three of these moms planned not to return to their previous jobs; feeling overworked and burned out. They were seeking a way to work on their own terms, and while business ownership isn’t easy, YOU set the pace. “Moms Mean Business,” inspired and aided them in starting their own businesses. A social-first media strategy, it centered on a moving film and was amplified by a multi-phased social activism, launched in organic social, and supported by paid media, as people began to recommend the program for the moms they knew. “Moms Mean Business” drove +40MM paid impressions and +450MM earned impressions. This short term campaign generated +20K leads, who were 3x more engaged than typical visitors.

This work was a labor of love across all production partners, with nearly every key stakeholder being a mom, including our director who came back early from maternity leave to take this job, shifting our entire production to Denmark so that she could manage the shoot while still staying near her newborn.

The work fluctuates between the stylized and the personalized. In the core moments of the video - formed around one woman’s story of childbirth - we leaned into an almost athletic aesthetic, with the goal of giving childbirth (and by extension starting a business) the same raw, celebratory power we see in athletic advertisements. These bits of video are interspersed with real images of mom entrepreneurs with their children of various ages. The entire film is then set to a powerful original score, built around a strong labor heartbeat that becomes a strong call-to-arms drum beat.

With lower-recognition and lower-media spend than our competitors, we created ZenBusiness’ most successful marketing campaign ever. More, the face of entrepreneurship in America is changing thanks to “Moms Mean Business”.

Since the campaign went live, we've had an incremental +1100 conversions: people purchasing an LLC formation on ZenBusiness.com. At the highest point of the previous performance campaign, we were getting 50 signups per week. This campaign drove a 78% increase in signups for ZenBusiness.

Our program garnered nearly half a million earned impressions in its first few weeks, picked up by over 50 news outlets. In social, we saw the highest engagement we’ve ever seen from Facebook or Instagram, with a 972% increase in comments, 276% increase in post saves, and 1746% increase in shares compared to our previous campaigns.

"Moms Mean Business" has cracked open the world of entrepreneurship, busting the narrow perception of who can thrive in it.