National multi-media campaign to promote positive parenting

Freshwater worked with the Welsh Government over three years to develop and deliver its multi-channel ‘Parenting. Give it time’ campaign aimed at parents of children aged 0 – 5 years old pan-Wales.

During the three year campaign, we developed an annual communications strategy with multiple tactics to reach and engage the target audience. A TV advert was produced and promoted on Sky AdSmart, S4C, TrueView and in cinemas. Digital marketing tactics included Facebook and Google Display Network advertising, in addition to digital media partnerships with WalesOnline, NetMums and MumsNet. And a series of roadshow events were delivered to achieve face-to-face engagement with parents and support the launch of a competition to find the ‘real’ faces of parenting in Wales.

In 2015, Freshwater won a competitive Welsh Government tender to develop a multi-channel campaign aimed at promoting positive parenting techniques to parents of children aged 0-5 across Wales. An initial 12-month contract, Freshwater was then recommissioned to continue to deliver the campaign over a further period of two years.

Between 2015 and 2018, Freshwater delivered three phases of communications activity to promote the ‘Parenting. Give it time’ campaign.

During the first phase of activity, we developed an overarching creative concept featuring parents and children enjoying spending time undertaking everyday activities that some parents find stressful. We conducted focus group testing to inform the visuals and messaging for the campaign, and ensure it would resonate with the target audience.

The creative concept was later evolved during phases two and three of the campaign to feature new photography, messaging and design features to ensure it remained ‘fresh’ and to avoid audience apathy.

During phase two we incorporated themes of minimising stress, having fun and routine while phase three introduced real parents and children to represent the ‘faces of parenting’ in Wales. A consistent colour palette, design style and tone of voice underpinned the creative to draw together the three distinct phases of activity.

At the outset of each phase, an integrated channel strategy was scoped and developed incorporating a range of tactics that would allow us to reach and engage the target audience. We selected channels with advanced targeting capabilities such as Facebook and SkyAdsmart, which enabled us to specifically target parents with children aged 0-5 years pan-Wales, allowing us to achieve mass exposure while ensuring best use of budget.

Digital partnerships with WalesOnline and parenting blogs including MumsNet and NetMums, Google Display Network advertising, targeted ‘family focussed’ cinema advertising, bus shelter six-sheets and print advertising also formed part of the channel strategy over the three phases. Freshwater managed the production, copywriting and design of all campaign assets, and implemented an ongoing public relations and organic social media strategy to further engage with the target audience online.

During phase three of the campaign, we implemented a competition to find real people to become the ‘faces’ of the campaign. This provided an opportunity to further engage with the target audience, to introduce new voices to represent the campaign and capture new photography for press, the campaign website, advertising activity and marketing materials.

The competition was promoted online and at a series of high-profile regional events by Freshwater’s events team, also giving us an opportunity to achieve ‘on the ground’ engagement with parents across Wales.

Through a diverse mix of marketing tactics, Freshwater was able to sustain engagement and awareness of the ‘Parenting. Give it time’ campaign over three years.

The TV advert provided mass exposure through cinema and broadcast advertising. There were 660,229 admissions in cinemas pan-Wales during screenings of the advert, and 402,292 impressions of the TV advert were served to 62,171 target households.

Adverts delivered across all online platforms were seen over 21.2 million times and we generated over half a million video views across Facebook and TrueView.

The Freshwater events team engaged with 1,011 people at eight roadshow events pan-Wales and there were nearly 200 entries to the ‘faces of parenting’ competition.

During the three phases of activity delivered by Freshwater, the Facebook page increased from 0 to 4,168 page likes.