Inspiration meets innovation at Brandweek, the ultimate marketing experience. Join industry luminaries, rising talent and strategic experts in Phoenix, Arizona this September 23–26 to assess challenges, develop solutions and create new pathways for growth. Register early to save.
Mom wasn’t always a mom, you know. She had a life before childbirth, and it might well have included singing in a band, jumping out of an airplane and traveling the world.
What if Mother’s Day advertising highlighted those pre-maternal wild hairs and personality traits, which might be long buried but could still be very much intact?
Teleflora, a brand that’s made its marketing bones in recent years with its unconventional love stories, has created a two-hankie ad centered on the women—the adventurers, the rule breakers, the stigma busters—who at some point added “mother” to their many dimensions.
“MotHER: A Teleflora Love Story” comes from in-house creatives at The Wonderful Agency, who parsed some data to come up with the concept.
According to a Pew Research Center survey, being a parent is a key part of most moms’ identity, with 85% of moms saying that being a parent is the most or one of the most important aspects of who they are as a person.
The ‘HER” in mother
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, per Teleflora, but as a result, “American moms feel lost in motherhood,” Danielle Mason, vice president of marketing at the brand, told Adweek.
“The demands of motherhood can be all-consuming at times, making it challenging to have a sense of personal identity,” Mason said. “This campaign reminds us to reflect on and celebrate every magnificent part of Mom—who she is now and the past that shaped ‘her.’”
The hero 60-second ad relies on user-generated content for some of its key scenes, similar to the tactic Teleflora has used in the past to dramatic effect. Creatives asked employees and others to share footage of their mothers or other extraordinary women “being wild and free” before they became moms, Mason said.