As a news media organisation, we’re always looking at new ways to connect with audiences on a local and relevant level, and at the same time, help our clients talk to audiences across multiple categories.

Last year, the question posed to us was, “How do we talk to parents, particularly mothers, about topical issues and open a content vertical that our fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) clients can get involved in?” After all, News Regional Media (formerly APN Australian Regional Media) reaches 2.5 times more mothers than the entire number of mothers residing in the state’s capital.

After talking with mothers around the office, friends, and family with children, we discovered there were common issues affecting all parents, and ones we felt we could tackle in a real, conversational way. And so, Hey Mumma was born.

The idea was simple: take four mothers from all walks of life in regional Australia away for a weekend to de-stress in a relaxed environment and talk about topics that impact their lives.

Hey Mumma was a six-week, video-led series on six topics about parenthood. Whilst video was the focus, we extended content across all platforms on our network with expert articles, opinion pieces, in-depth interviews with the mums, and local audience vox pops and social media commentary.

We housed Hey Mumma online in its own section with content constantly filtering in throughout the week, ensuring there was always new content to explore and engage with. It also meant we could organise the content by topic and create an archive system for our audience to catch up on videos and stories from previous weeks.

Hey Mumma gave us the perfect environment for our FMCG clients, so when we spoke to Unilever about partnering with us, the company jumped at the chance to align its re-launched premium laundry brand, OMO Ultimate, to drive brand awareness and sales of the product.

To make this initiative work better for Unilever and OMO, they entrusted us with their brand collateral throughout the series, and through several collaborative sessions, our creative department designed their display ads with messaging to align with that week’s content topics.

These subtle messages helped the brand and cut through to our audiences, giving OMO Ultimate more relevance. In one instance, we wrapped the newspaper with a kids’ school holiday activity guide, aligning to OMO OMO’s brand philosophy of “Real Play,” getting children to put down their devices and interact in real life.

To enhance audience reach, we did a content-distribution deal with a leading mum blogger, Stay at Home Mum, who helped get our content out to a national market perfectly targeted to mothers, and amplified the campaign for both us and Unilever.

We also knew achieving critical mass on a six-week series would be a challenge, so to promote the series, we implemented a three-week promotional campaign. This involved innovative creative, survey results and teaser trailers of the episodes. We also introduced the mothers earlier on so people could build a rapport with them based on their personality and parenting type.

The results achieved were amazing. The videos saw 622,000 streams, with over 319,000 article reads and a social media engagement rate of more than 4x the industry average.

As for the client, we helped to increase brand awareness by 26%, positive brand affinity rose 44%, and consideration for their products rose more than 200%. This led to a substantial increase in sales for OMO and the OMO Ultimate product.

Hey Mumma was a perfect example of how well thought out, audience-led content can benefit both the reader and client at the same time.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .