Challenge

 

1 in 4 women will miscarry and whilst it is a common experience amongst those trying for children, there is still a societal stigma attached to the loss. As a culture we find it difficult to deal with, both in terms of those experiencing the trauma and the people around them. At a time when we are more connected than ever, there still remains a silence around baby loss, made harder by the presence of what the ‘perfect pregnancy’ can look like online. Research conducted by Tommy’s has found that 66% of those who experience the tragedy of baby-loss felt bombarded by pregnancy related online news, and that 80% felt jealousy towards pregnant friends.

 

Brief

 

Mindshare and Tommy’s have sought to flip this narrative, leveraging social media to create a peer-to-peer support network and destigmatise the grief that follows baby loss. The campaign, linked across social media with the hashtag '#TogetherForChange', has kickstarted awareness of the issue with an online video, following the journey of an expectant mother through texts, tweets and status updates as excitement turns to grief when her pregnancy ends in loss.

 

Alongside this, Tinderflint collaborated producing a series of interview films that featured real people in the public eye with experience of baby loss or miscarriage including influencers such as Giovanna Fletcher, Marina Fogle and Anna Whitehouse. The films offer practical advice to those who might be going baby loss themselves and to also help raise awareness of the need for change through research into preventing miscarriage.

 

Execution

 

Tinderflint’s co-founder and in-house Director Eliot Carroll shot a series of interview led films using an EyeDirect system where the contributors are looking straight down the lens. The films were shot in the same homely environment to put them as much at ease as possible when discussing such difficult subject matter. The films were shot over a period of 3 days with a small crew to be as unobtrusive as possible featuring a range of individuals affected by baby loss including high profile influencers such as Giovanna Fletcher, Marina Fogle and Anna Whitehouse. Alongside the 8 subject based films which are hosted on Tommy’s #TogetherForChange website https://www.tommys.org/together-for-change a series of 15-20 shorter pieces of content were produced to be posted on social media by the influencers, to drive traffic to the website.

 

Results

On the Tommy’s social media accounts the following results were achieved:

 

-        Facebook -  Over 1 million reach, 85% of which was organic and had over 23k engagements making it the highest reach and engagement ever for a Tommy’s campaign.

-        500k reach on Instagram with 12k engagements.

-        Over 4 million people reached on Twitter with over 12k engagements.

-        60 influencers got behind the campaign to extend the reach and coverage was picked up across national press including ITV (estimated 1.2m reach) BBC News Online (1.9m reach) and Sky Radio amongst others.

 

The campaign drove the highest ever traffic on a single day to the Tommy’s website and achieved the longest average site visits.

 

Tommy’s also wanted people to visit their Facebook Peer-to-Peer Group. Over 1000 people joined during the campaign with hundreds of posts shared, many of whom felt validated through sharing their experiences and felt empowered to encourage more people to talk about their experience. A new member of the Facebook peer group wrote the following post on 3^rd of August (To note this has been un-edited unless grammatically unclear).

 

“I wanted to share with you all what I did yesterday. I spoke about my miscarriage. I didn’t expect many to acknowledge my post on Facebook but wow!! So many shared their stories for the first time either on my post or by private message. It was so good to talk to people close to me knowing we are hurting the same. I am sorry for the long post I have copied in case you wanted to read it. #togetherforchange #im1in4

 

Writing this has been one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. We are not sharing this for attention nor to gain sympathy, we want to share our story and help people to talk more freely.

7 weeks ago we found out we were going to be parents for the first time. We were so happy, over the moon, lost for words, crying with joy but scared all at the same time. We spoke about how we would manage, needed to start saving, even talked about getting a new car as mine was not a good car for having a baby.

We got over excited about what we could expect during the next 7 days and half months. Working out the do’s and don’ts of being pregnant what to eat, what not to eat. I couldn’t help it I spend every spare moment on google looking up everything there was on being a first-time mum. What size the baby was at what point, when you got scanned the list goes on. Baby names even came up some evenings as I would lay there holding my belly, already protecting the peanut inside me. I had the most exciting weeks ahead of me booked my first midwife appointment, maybe learning more than the books or online forums told you. Excited was an understatement. I was wishing the days away to get to that day. 5 weeks ago I spend the day in pain, couldn’t sit, couldn’t stand felt so ill that I just wanted to have a bath and go to bed. I woke up the next day feeling a little better and decided to go to my dance class. A little over an hour later I started to bleed, panicking I got in my car and froze. I didn’t know what to do or who to call. Mum that’s who came to mind my mum, not only did I have to tell her I was pregnant but to also beg for help as I was bleeding and didn’t know what to do. Later in the day I was advised by 111 to get to A&E ASAP. Which I did, I was left there for nearly 6 hours to be told they couldn’t help me and to help come back the next day to the EPU. Little did we know this day would bring our world crushing down. We never got to go for our first midwife appointment. We never got to hear the heartbeat nor see our little peanut on the screen.

We were given the news our peanut was no longer there. I had had a miscarriage.

We left the hospital in a daze not knowing what to say to each or how to react. Surely she was wrong this was all a big mistake, a dream I couldn’t wake up from.

The next few weeks were heartbreaking, everything around us screamed newborns, baby this and baby that. I couldn’t cope I was falling apart throwing myself in everything and anything to avoid feeling the pain.

I was given Tommy’s Midwife’s information for further help. Joined their support group and got the help I needed. I hadn’t grieved, I hadn’t taken on what had happened and I didn’t open up about how I felt. Joining the support group and getting help was the best thing I could have done for myself and my boyfriend. I took on what had happened and I grieved. I spoke to others who had also miscarried from the lady and even the men’s point of view. Sharing stories and helping to guide each other, how to handle the feelings that were building up inside. Guilt was my worst feeling. What did I do wrong? Why did this happen? What’s wrong with my body?

Together with Tommy’s Midwife’s we want to raise awareness, show others it’s ok to not be ok. It’s ok to talk about having a miscarriage, your baby born sleeping, born too soon or infant death. No one should be made to feel they can’t talk about their feelings or share what they have gone through. It’s time for this to change, time to speak out.”

 

After two months, 100s of blogs had been started off the back of the campaign, with people realising the power of sharing and connecting with others who had lived through similar experiences. 

 

Siobhan Gray – Head of Brand and Communications at Tommy’s commented:

 

The ‘Together For Change’ campaign was instrumental in increasing widespread awareness of the emotional and physical impact of baby loss, and Tommy’s role as the biggest charity in the UK funding research into its cause and prevention.

 

The results have been fantastic and Tinderflint were instrumental in the campaign’s success. They approached the problem behind the campaign with sensitivity and insight.  A key part of the campaign involved a series of in-depth interviews with parents who had been through loss; Tinderflint executed the filming with compassionate questioning, detailed scripting and creativity to produce a series of films that obtained excellent engagement, strengthened Tommy’s relationships with key supports and left us with a lasting bank of ever-green content that we will continue to use across our channels.