For years, Prega News has claimed to bring ‘good news’ to soon-to-be mothers. To take this relationship forward, Prega News has launched different gender sensitizing campaigns every now and then highlighting the issues surrounding soon-to-be mothers – workplace bias towards pregnant women or new moms, physical issues faced by expectant mothers, and more. With a previous campaign like #GoodNewsIsGenderFree, the brand targeted Indian families and their regressive mindsets. They request their audiences to wish for a healthy child, irrespective of their child’s sex.

In this campaign, Prega News wanted to sensitize the audience around the infertility stigma. The brand wanted to create a digital campaign that addresses the battles fought by women who can’t conceive and highlight the pressure projected by society. With this campaign, the brand aimed at increasing brand goodwill, the share of voice, and awareness around the issue of infertility.

According to a report by the Indian Society of Assisted Reproduction, 10-14% of the Indian population suffers from infertility. One out of six couples in urban India battle infertility and its social, emotional, and physical consequences are harsher for women. In an environment where your reproductive capabilities define the conventions of your gender, infertility can become a social curse, particularly for women. In Indian TV serials and films, the word ‘baanjh’ has been used frequently to dismiss women and to disinvite them from happy family ceremonies. Especially involving pregnancy and babies. This aggregates to a wrong notion that infertile is the worst thing a woman can be. Everyone looks at childless women as tragic and ‘incomplete’. Infertility exists as a taboo and is considered to be a woman’s problem. People believe in myths like; age impacts fertility of women, not men, and that it is impossible for women to get pregnant after 38-40 years of age. Many families become unsupportive and in many regions family members take the women to exorcists to treat their infertility. Now with this film, the brand wanted to challenge these stigmas, break the myths around infertility and sensitize society towards the issue of infertility.

In a society where childless women are considered tragic and ‘incomplete’, we introduced the campaign #SheIsCompleteInHerself. With this powerful and thought-provoking hashtag, the campaign aimed at propagating the message that motherhood is not the only virtue that defines womanhood. A woman plays many other roles which complete her self-identity. The idea took the form of a film where the protagonist is unable to conceive and feels the loss of purpose and self-identity among her family members. She is happy for her mother-to-be sister-in-law but also feels the void and pressure at the same time, even after there is no discrimination in the family. The sensitivity and empathy are shown from the protagonist’s sister-in-law who notices her pain and makes her feel what she means and how she is complete in herself.

The brand wanted to break the clutter and achieve maximum mindshare not just for the brand but a cause towards the change in society. So we took a giant leap and even after being a pregnancy test kit brand that celebrates pregnancy, we took a brave step to address the issue of infertility and. At the brainstorming stage, we did secondary research on the issues of infertility and gender stereotypes. We found that one out of six couples in urban India battle infertility and it's harsher for women. As infertility rises in India, so does the injustice to women who suffer from it. We targeted the communication primarily towards the Tier I, II and III cities where these stigmas majorly exist. The campaign launched with an online film and then amplified further with a LIVE consultation with a Gynaecologist on infertility issues followed by various influencers who joined the movement.

We planned the campaign execution in three-legs; launch with the film, experiential activation in form of online consultation with a gynecologist, and then influencer collaboration to amplify the reach of the message.

Since the reception of the brief, the creative team took two weeks to crack the insight, conceptualize the idea and write the first draft of the film. Later by the last week of Jan 2021 the pre-production for the film started was shot on 9th February and then post-production happened. The film went live on 21st February 2021 across all the major social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter. For one week the film garnered organic views and shares and promotion happened much after that. In the second phase, we also got a renowned Indian Gynaecologist to address the infertility stigma by conducting a social LIVE online consultation. Later, 20+ influencers joined the campaign across platforms.

Prega News became the first brand to address the issue of infertility in public communication. The women on the internet resonated with the campaign and shared their own stories. A safe platform emerged for women to talk about the issue that wasn’t ever publicly discussed in India and the campaign became a trending talking point on social media with 100k+ conversations and 12.3 million+ reach of the hashtag #SheIsCompleteInHerself. 20+ influencers joined the conversation to break the stigma. 53+ major publications like Afaqs, Mad Over Marketing, NDTV, Times Now came forward to support the story. With Prega News, many unheard & unspoken stories found a voice, awareness & acceptance as the campaign garnered 15 million+ views on Youtube and 8.3 million+ views on Facebook. The brand witnessed growth in its share of voice too, brand sentiment saw a 53% spike and the brand website witnessed 17% growth in traffic.