The Brief

 

Despite a healthy provision of quality childcare settings in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council, including childminders, playgroups and day nurseries, research showed that awareness amongst parents/carers of this provision was low.

jamjar was tasked with developing and implementing a campaign to raise awareness of the childcare provision in Merthyr and educate parents of the benefits of using a quality childcare setting, all in a bid to increase take up of places.

What we did

 

As every parent wants their child to have the best start in life, our campaign focused on building on this by communicating the long term benefits to children of engaging in quality childcare.

Concept – Best start, best future

Message – Give your child the best start, for the best future with early years’ childcare in Merthyr Tydfil

As the Merthyr FIS website was to be the main shop window for showcasing the local provision, we created several website pages for the campaign:

Childcare in Merthyr Tydfil http://www.merthyrfis.org/best-start-best-future/childcare-in-merthyr-tydfil/ This page showcased the different types of providers but also demonstrated the benefits from attending a quality childcare provider.

A map of providers http://www.merthyrfis.org/best-start-best-future/childcare-providers-map/ Social insight showed that the local community didn’t know where the nearest provider was to them so we created an interactive map that pinpointed the providers in the area.

Not convinced about using childcare? http://www.merthyrfis.org/best-start-best-future/childcare-faqs/ This page was developed to break down some of the barriers that prevent parents using the local provision.

As recommendations from other parents came out as being crucial in the decision making, we sourced parents to feature in the campaign that could help share the benefits of using childcare, while also breaking down the barriers.

These parents featured in a series of bilingual films, the main focal point of the campaign, which also showcased the breadth of the local offering.

Overarching campaign video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBzpQlZT__A

Day nurseries https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8WRyU084qA

Day care, wrap around and after school clubs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzo_wZqcKkQ

Childminders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayf16-artqo

Cylch meithrins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmL-9aTbyU4

Parent testimonials https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHCd5OojBeY

We supplemented these videos with a series of graphics, each of which demonstrated a different development benefit, such as independence and fine motor skills.

Our initial research dictated that digital communications was going to be the most effective way to reach our target audience.

Social media, particularly Facebook, was seen as the main resource for finding out about childcare and activities for children and families locally, so we focussed on this along with a Google advertising campaign and advert on Sky adsmart.

 

What we achieved

  • FIS website statistics
    • Sessions – 6,166
    • Users – 5,068 (79% new, 21% returning)
    • Page views – 25,866 (+498% on previous six month period)
    • Unique page views – 20,931 (+547% on previous six month period)

 

  • YouTube
    • 36,199 video views

 

  • Digital advertising
    • Impressions – 623,119
    • Clicks – 1,649
  • Facebook
    • Audience growth – +326 likes
    • Reach – 141,582
    • Impressions – 327,384
    • Video views – 26,998
    • Post engagements – 1,281
    • Link clicks – 570

 

  • Sky Adsmart TV advertising
    • Total impressions delivered: 62,455

What this meant for our client

While we await the results of the next CSA report, the initial anecdotal feedback on outcomes is looking good. Since the campaign Myra the childminder featured is now full and can no longer take any more children, Funtazia, the day nursery featured, is the busiest it’s ever been, Twyncarmel, the cylch meithrin featured, has extended its opening hours to accommodate an increase in take up and Trinity has extended its business to open a Cylch Meithrin.