case study

Case Study: Creating Balanced Meals with California Pizza Kitchen

October 15, 2015 by The Motherhood

On behalf of California Pizza Kitchen and the Balance Your Plate initiative, The Motherhood identified 20 top online influencers to learn how California Pizza Kitchen’s frozen pizzas can be a part of balanced, nutritious meal, and to showcase the pizzas’ quality ingredients and unique flavors to their online audiences.

The Motherhood introduced the program via an interactive virtual briefing, directly connecting brand representatives with the influencers in real time. The opportunity gave the blogger team exclusive access to the brand and the chance to ask questions about California Pizza Kitchen and Balance Your Plate.

Using ingredients they received before the campaign began (such as pizza and salad toppers), the bloggers also developed balanced meals in their own homes, incorporating fresh foods with frozen ones for quick, easy family meals. Combining their own experiences with information they learned in the briefing, each influencer published a blog post to share messaging and tips for creating simple, balanced meals. The team also cross-promoted their blog posts to their social media channels throughout the campaign period.

At the end of the blog tour, The Motherhood and bloggers co-hosted an hour-long Twitter party sharing Balance Your Plate tips and information on California Pizza Kitchen.

To measure shifts in perception, purchase intent and the usefulness of the Balance Your Plate resources, The Motherhood surveyed the bloggers before and after the campaign.

Quick look at results:

Breakdown of results:

The frequency with which bloggers planned to incorporate frozen meals and pizzas into their weekly menus increased overall between the start and end of the program, and 80 percent of respondents planned on incorporating them at least once a week. At the conclusion of the campaign, 100 percent of blogger participants said they plan on serving frozen meals such as CPK pizzas along with sides such as vegetables and fruits – a key goal of the Balance Your Plate initiative.

In total, the program generated nearly 50 million blog and social media impressions on behalf of California Pizza Kitchen and Balance Your Plate and resulted in positive, high-quality digital content that will appear in web searches for years to come.

Featured image courtesy of Anne, Upstate Ramblings.

Case Study: Bloggers, Brands Come Together at Local Market Events

October 9, 2015 by The Motherhood

The Motherhood’s network includes thousands of social media moms all across the country, so much of our work is done over email. However, we also execute in-person local market events that enable us to connect our trusted influencers with the organizations we’re proud to call our partners.

When bloggers experience a brand in person through a carefully and thoughtfully planned event, the resulting content comes to life beautifully through words, personal photos and videos. Beyond the blog post, however, brands have an opportunity to earn bloggers’ trust, build advocacy, interact with the blogger as a customer, gather feedback and forge a powerful and valuable connection for years to come.

During summer 2015, The Motherhood executed a number of local market events:

Northwoood for Moms: It’s a Mom’s World

To tell the story of how Pittsburgh-based Northwood Realty Services is an ideal place for moms to start a real estate career, The Motherhood invited 10 bloggers from the region to an event to meet some of Northwood’s top real estate agents—who also happen to be moms!

Bloggers exchanged stories with the Northwood Moms and engaged in a robust conversation about balancing career and family, pursuing passions and the many ways to define success. Bloggers live-tweeted using the hashtag #NorthwoodForMoms, earning Northwood a spot on the list of trending topics in the Pittsburgh region. The event resulted in not only a trending hashtag and more than three million impressions in the target market, but it also directly led to multiple interviews from moms who are interested in being real estate agents.

Bolthouse Farms Kids: Fruits & Veggies Disguised as Snacks

To elevate the Bolthouse Farms Kids brand in Pittsburgh and generate awareness of its new products, The Motherhood enlisted a powerhouse team of influential Pittsburgh moms to attend a series of local market events.

To kick off the program, each blogger received a box of Bolthouse Farms Kids smoothies, fruit tubes and veggie snackers to share with their family and their blog readers. As part of their social media posts, bloggers also urged their readers to spot the #SnackMob trucks and attend events in their area. Then, each blogger attended #SnackMob truck events throughout the city and encouraged their readers to do the same. Bloggers also used their social media posts to spread the word about the #SnackMob contest and to document their own experiences with this one-of-a-kind snack truck.

Chick-fil-A: Where Good Meets Gracious

The Motherhood recently partnered with a group of bloggers for a local market event that gave them a behind-the-scenes look at the heart and soul of Chick-fil-A – inspiring them to create personal and heartfelt posts about the facets of the company that only an in-person gathering could have revealed.

Bloggers shared a sneak peek at a few soon-to-be-released menu items (that had been flown in from Atlanta by the company’s menu development manager so the bloggers could sample them), tried their hand at creating lemonade the same way each Chick-fil-A store does, and discovered some truly special connections with the store operators. Others appreciated how Chick-fil-A supports local communities or how the company makes life easier for working moms. Chick-fil-A also inspired this 7 Day “Be the Change” Family Challenge.

Email [email protected] for more information on securing blogger attendance at local market events.

#TBT Social Media Case Study: 77kids Do Good Day

August 17, 2015 by The Motherhood

Photo credit: Stacy, Stacy Uncorked

Hard to believe it’s been five years since The Motherhood created and led Do Good Day, a nationwide retail launch for the 77kids clothing line, and a new, big idea at the time. Imagine the incredible momentum and magic of 77 of the country’s top online influencers leading their communities to do helpful, kind, neighborly acts in celebration of the 77kids launch. The program makes us proud and we wanted to share it with you as a social media case study for #TBT!

It was the summer of 2010, on a limited budget, and with seven launches planned across the country, the company asked us to build buzz about 77kids nationwide in a fun, memorable way, keeping the importance of local communities front and center. To do that, we hired 77 mom bloggers – seven people in 11 different markets, clustered around the seven launch locations where 77kids would be opening. These moms were challenged to find ways to do good in their community in the name of 77kids.

Each group of influencers received a 77kids Do Good Day kit filled with items including 77kids-branded thank you cards and collateral, Silly Bandz and dollar bills, all meant to be distributed to unsuspecting locals to brighten their day. We also encouraged participants to find a location that would help them and their kids do good and share the 77kids message of helping local communities.

The influencers, and their families and friends, came up with a wide range of ideas for executing Do Good Day and shared on social platforms through the entire process. From creating thank-you cards for soldiers serving overseas as part of Operation Gratitude, to cooking lunch for families staying at the local Ronald McDonald House, to giving flowers to people passing on the sidewalk, these do-gooders in cities across the country helped others feel good about themselves – and the 77kids brand.

The program drew the attention of local media, Do Good Day signs appeared on the Today Show set, and the participating moms blogged and cross-posted their content on their social media platforms. By the time the campaign ended, Do Good Day had garnered more than 110 blog posts, 3,000 tweets and more than 10 million overall impressions for the 77kids brand. In the years since we’ve been surprised at conferences on a few occassions when Do Good Day is highlighted by speakers as a social media marketing innovation case study!

Case Study: The Motherhood & the March of Dimes Reach 75 Million through imbornto Influencer Program

July 24, 2015 by The Motherhood

Between April and June 2015, the March of Dimes engaged The Motherhood to raise awareness of imbornto® – the March of Dimes’ national cause marketing campaign that raises money for the organization’s vital research and programs that improve the lives of babies and families everywhere.

The Motherhood identified and engaged a team of 39 top social media moms – representing the number of weeks of a healthy full-term pregnancy – and 12 influential social media dads to become imbornto ambassadors for the three-month program.

The campaign kicked off with a virtual briefing hosted by the March of Dimes and The Motherhood. The social media ambassadors heard directly from a March of Dimes senior executive about the organization’s history, the imbornto campaign and its partners, and ways to get involved. After the virtual presentation, the bloggers asked questions and shared their excitement for the program.

Following the briefing, The Motherhood hosted monthly Twitter parties for three months timed to the campaign’s launch, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. imbornto partners participated in the Twitter parties and shared information on their specially designed product offerings, all benefitting the March of Dimes.

In April and May, 20 mom influencers held intimate in-home gatherings to spread the word about the cause and the imbornto sponsor partnerships. At the events, friends and family received gift baskets from imbornto partners.

During the three-month blog tour, bloggers published information about the imbornto campaign, their role as #imbornto ambassadors, their in-home parties, partner promotions and the March of Dimes’ work. Campaign ambassadors also shared #ThrowbackThursday/#TBT photos on Thursdays throughout the campaign, celebrating what they and their own children were born to do.

In total, the program involved 51 bloggers, 20 in-home parties, three Twitter parties and a three-month blog and social media tour that garnered nearly 75 million blog and social media impressions.

Featured image source: Kayla, Kayla Aimee

The Motherhood and The Stork OTC Reach 57 Million with New, At-Home Option for Those Trying to Conceive

April 30, 2015 by The Motherhood

Today, approximately 7.3 million pairs of would-be parents (1 in 6 couples) in the U.S. have difficulty conceiving, and most treatments are slow, invasive and costly. To help address this widespread issue, Rinovum Women’s Health, approached The Motherhood about a partnership to bring attention to the new over-the-counter availability of a product called The Stork OTC conception aid, a less invasive, less expensive treatment option for those trying to conceive (previously only available via prescription).

We engaged a team of 30 bloggers comprised of moms who experienced difficulty conceiving and could offer a personal perspective or had a special interest in writing about fertility and sharing options with their readers. In partnership with the team of talented bloggers, The Motherhood executed a three-phased blog tour that generated a collection of meaningful blog posts and created a robust dialogue about infertility.

The Motherhood also produced and hosted two one-hour Twitter chats: one to help build awareness as soon as The Stork OTC appeared on store shelves and online, and one later in the program to continue momentum.

The program resulted in more than 57 million impressions from 34 blog posts and more than 8,000 social media posts. The final month of the campaign alone generated more than 5,000 unique website visits from one single blogger, with more than 16% of those visitors prompting online retailers to sellout of the devices within 24 hours.

Case Study: Engaging Bloggers to Create Ad Content

March 30, 2015 by The Motherhood

At The Motherhood, we organize and manage creative campaigns with bloggers, typically in partnership with PR agencies or brand marketing managers. On a fairly regular basis, though, advertisers ask us for help in creating authentic content for print ads, as well as shining a social media spotlight on those ads.

Here’s an example:

Media company Hearst, which publishes dozens of women’s magazines such as Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire, ELLE and O, the Oprah Magazine, asked The Motherhood to create a campaign that would engage bloggers to expand the reach of one of their advertisers, a national ice cream brand.

Planned for the July issue of dozens of Hearst’s women’s magazines, the ice cream brand had purchased a one-page advertisement to share tips on guilt-free summer indulgences, which aligned with the messaging of their newly launched, no-sugar-added ice cream products.

Beginning in February, with enough lead time to provide content for the magazine ads, The Motherhood brought in 15 high-impact food and lifestyle bloggers to participate in the campaign. The two most influential bloggers were asked to provide several tips for summer indulgences that eventually appeared in the print magazine advertisement. Additionally, all 15 bloggers sampled the new ice cream products and published review blog posts (with photos) on July 1, the day the ad hit newsstands, to extend the messaging of the new no-sugar-added ice cream products and other summer indulgences to the blogosphere.

The campaign resulted in beautiful blog coverage and social media extensions garnering five million impressions for the brand in one day, and it brought their advertising messaging online to live indefinitely on the digital bookshelf.

If you’re an advertiser interested in a similar program, please email us for a customized campaign recommendation at [email protected].