This Baby Bottle Startup Talks to Parents Like a Tech Giant Would

For myriad personal and complex reasons breastfeeding can be tough or even impossible. That’s why, although the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding until six months, just 40% of infants are fed this way globally.

All moms will know the mantra that “fed is best,” and baby bottles have come a long way since formula went mainstream in 1867. However, tech startup Emulait is on its own mission to further “close the gap between breast and bottle.”

The Las Vegas-based business has designed a range of personalized designs intended to replicate the “nipple, areola, and breast, in form, function and feel,” for hungry babies.

The company has so far received $16 million in funding rounds and launched in the U.S. earlier this year. The start-up has now unveiled its flagship bottle in Europe as well as its first global ad campaign.  

“Born for Now,” from independent Swedish agency B-Reel will launch in key markets including the U.S., U.K., Sweden and Australia with the aim of giving parents a sense of freedom and confidence around bottle feeding, and to encourage everyone to get involved, including mums, dads, partners, grandparents, co-parents, aunts, uncles and siblings.

“The brief was to translate our technology in a more human language,” explained founder and chief executive Shilo Ben Zeev, who launched the business after his wife struggled to breastfeed their daughter.

“We want to push this market into the 21^st century,” he added, “but we wanted to use language that was parent-centric too.”

A tech aesthetic

Emulait’s biometric bottle can be personalized via an app that allows mothers to take digital scans of their breasts. Customers then select one of 25 bottle-top ‘nipple’ variations which come in five different skin tones and sizes.

The teats have multiple milk holes and a 3-flow system to replicate the physiological flow rate of a real nipple, which the company claims can reduce the risk of overfeeding.

At the heart of the campaign are two films shot in cinematic style, highlighting the tech powering the bottle.

Print and social ads (that could pass for posters promoting Apple or Samsung) will run in tandem, with simple copy underlining the product’s unique features.

The contrast of a subject so fundamentally intimate and emotional, paired with visuals and language we usually associate with tech giants was intentional, with B-Reel’s copywriter Anna Zetterlund, adding the inherent tension enthused the team.

“While a lot of our competitors focus solely on babies, we wanted to shift the focus to tell a story that speaks to parents first and foremost,” he added.

“Parents, and anyone raising a child, should be able to see themselves in our campaign and feel heard in the way that we talk to them. This, in combination with the fact that we’re using 3D visuals usually reserved for a new tech launch, means we’re carving out our own space in the market.”

Freeing the nipple

Though brands including Tomme Tippee and Frida have shown breastfeeding moms in their messy, complicated, loving and unvarnished glory on prime time TV, the female nipple very much still censored on apps including Facebook and Instagram.

Emulait’s campaign has censored out the bottle teats in some executions as a cheeky nod to these stringent nudity rules on social media platforms.

Ben Zeev said as recently as a month ago, Google banned Emulait’s ads because their system flagged the bottle as a sex toy.

“It’s happening to us daily online, we’ve been facing a lot of issues with online ads,” he said.

B-Reel took this and ran with it.

“When you have a bottle that looks like a real breast paired with a social media first campaign, it’s too good of an opportunity to pass up,” said Zetterlund.

“We just had to make a comment on Meta’s guidelines and history of banning posts featuring breasts and nipples. We were looking for a strong way to connect with our highly intelligent and passionate audience, knowing we had a lot of information to deliver. A fun hook and warm tone of voice felt like a strong way.”

With 95% of sales currently coming from the U.S., the business hopes to grow its market share across Europe and Australia, taking a slice of the a market anticipated to be worth $623.2 million by 2032.

Founder “We hope to see 5% growth in Europe in 2024,” said Ben Zeev.