Mothercare dials up brand focus with Mother's Day Facebook 'movie'

By Matthew Chapman, marketingmagazine.co.uk, Friday, 08 March 2013 09:09AM

Mothercare will launch a user-generated Mother's Day 'movie' charting 24-hours in the life of a modern-day mother, as part of an increasing focus on brand marketing.

Mothercare: to launch a user-generated Mother's Day movie'

The project will be directed by 'Child of our Time' director Susie Donaldson, using footage filmed by real mums on Mother’s Day this Sunday, 10 March.

Mums can take part by tweeting photos and video footage using the hashtag #MothersDayMoments, which will be collated into a movie by Donaldson and aired on the brand's Facebook page on Monday.

The initiative comes as Mothercare seeks to invest in its brand following a restructure of the company last year, when it announced in April it would reduce its estate to 200 stores by March 2015.

Mothercare wants to place greater emphasis on its online offering, and appointed former LoveFilm boss Simon Calver to the position of chief executive in April to help drive that change.

Meanwhile, at the beginning of the week, it emerged the babycare retailer had appointed Havas Worldwide to its integrated ad account, as part of its greater emphasis on brand marketing.

The "movie for mums" social film-making project aims to take advantage of mothers' increasing use of smartphones to share content.

Research carried out by Mothercare shows that four in five (81%) mothers now own a smartphone, while 56% of mums use their smartphones to share family news via social networks. 

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk