Goal

Growth Barrier: Quaker has been a partner of Canadian families since 1902, but over the years the brand has been losing relevance to competitors. It was seen as an old-fashioned food company that didn’t resonate with the target or stand for something relevant. Agency Citizen Relations was tasked with pushing Quaker into a modern contemporary space.

Communications Goal: Transform target’s belief that Quaker is “a brand for my mom” to “a brand for me and my family.”

Target

The purposeful mom (25 to 44, bullseye 35). She is an educated working mom in a mid-to-high income household. She leads an active and busy lifestyle. She is disciplined and purposeful in what she does: she writes a shopping list, exercises and makes sure her kids are active.

She lives in a complex, ever-changing world. She has opinions and values she tries to live by. She’s at her best (best mom, partner, co-worker, friend, etc.) when she stays true to her purpose and focuses on what’s truly important to her.

Insight and Strategy

To reignite consumers’ passion for the brand, Citizen looked to create a conversation with parents during highly meaningful moments.

Quaker understood that parents often compare themselves to highly-curated moments of other families that appear on their social feeds. This leads them to compare themselves to others and question their own parenting decisions. The team needed to find a way to restore parental confidence and show them that Quaker continues to support them.

Statistics

-75% of the target has used social media in the past week
-61% of millennial moms who use social media feel that social media posts can make them feel inadequate compared to only 50% of non-millennial moms

Insight: There is no handbook to parenting, no textbook or guide that tells them how to handle the often confusing road they must traverse every day. And unlike previous generations, every day they are inundated with a wealth of information and pressure about how to be a good parent. Today more than ever, the confidence of parents is eroding.

Quaker’s Belief: The biggest threat to families thriving is when the confidence of parents is shaken. So Quaker believes for families to be at their best, confidence in parents today must be restored.

Quaker’s Role: To Champion the Confidence of Parents.

Reason to Believe: Quaker has been supporting Canadian families since 1902.

The Idea: The Real Side of Perfect Parenting.

The Plan

The team encouraged parents to pull back the curtain and celebrate the real side of parenting – the glorious, noisy and beautiful side – and launched the “#stopCOMPAREnting” campaign. They reminded parents to look beyond their feeds and embrace authentic parenting moments.

First, the “stopCOMPAREnting” movement was launched in partnership with high-reaching celebrities across Canada. They shared their real parenting moments and opened up to the importance of celebrating the real side of parenting.

Then the agency worked with influencers across the country to engage their followers, raising awareness about the “stopCOMPAREnting” movement and encouraging participation. To further amplify the campaign, a provincial survey identified insights on parental confidence and the pressure to present perfect family moments versus the reality of parenting. This data was used to conduct media relations in Quebec with local celebrity and mom, Patricia Paquin. In Ontario, Cat and Nat from the Social Common shared their own COMPAREnting experiences with local media.

Finally, the team hosted a successful Twitter party and “#stopCOMPAREnting” became a trending hashtag in Canada. With 230 contributors, the Twitter party was named the number one Twitter party in 2016 for the popular host, Lena Almeida.

The Results

Throughout the month of November and December the campaign resulted in:
-More than 85 million impressions overall, including:
-9,400 tweets reaching 1.87 million users on Twitter
-9,900 impressions in social posts from influencer and consumer engagement
-More than 5.7 million impressions from traditional media.

The campaign was so successful that Facebook asked the team if they could do a case study on “#stopCOMPAREnting.” Best of all, a conversation with Canadian parents was started and reminded them to embrace their family’s real, everyday moments. So many parents joined the movement by sharing their own stories and images of their very own real parenting moments – the campaign was a huge success.

Partner Involvement

-BBDO
-OMD
-Majestic