Maltesers Continues Maternal Mental Health Awareness Campaign with #TheMaternityReturn

To mark Maternal Mental Health Month, Maltesers has launched #TheMaternityReturn, a new social media first campaign highlighting the ups, downs, and challenges mums face on returning to work after maternity leave.

The launch sees the Mars Wrigley owned brand team up with both Channel 4 and BuzzFeed, Inc as part of the wider activity, to help provide a platform for mums returning to work to share their stories and break down taboos around the challenges, emotions, and experiences they face when returning to the workplace after maternity leave.

As a continuation of the campaigns created last year by AMV BBDO #TheMassiveOvershare and #LoveBeatsLikes, #TheMaternityReturn is the third instalment in a series of campaigns from Maltesers as part of its multi-year partnership with charity partner Comic Relief.

Speaking about the campaign, Leah Dyckes, brand director, Maltesers said: “We are excited to have continued our partnerships with Channel 4 and Buzzfeed, Inc . As ever for Maltesers, we look to always highlight the light and the dark through humour, whilst addressing the tricky and taboo subjects that are often overlooked. Through engaging content as part of Channel 4’s Late Night Feed series and authentic, thought-provoking content produced by Buzzfeed, we hope to have demonstrated that the return to work can often be overwhelming and a real struggle for many mums but that there is always help and support available.”

On how the brand has helped mums to date through sharing stories, Leah adds: “As a result of our work to support mums last year, we saw over 200,000 mothers engage with our support resources and we have seen the highest ever volume of social conversation – we want to continue this engagement in order to help as many mums as possible through sharing and signposting to resources.”

Building on the brand’s humorous identity, Late Night Feed: The Return to Work’, a comedy special, was created in partnership with broadcaster Channel 4, following ‘Late Night Feed: Being A New Mum’.

The next instalment of this comedy short commission sees Harriet Kemsley, Dr Punam Krishan and Anna Whitehouse share the joys, challenges and laugh-out-loud moments of returning to work after becoming a mum. From the expectations and concerns of the first day, to the realities and rewards that come with the return to work, these three working mums share personal experiences that are widely relatable, all told with candour, warmth and humour. 

Channel 4 and Maltesers have partnered on this project to offer comfort, community and laughter to mums returning to work across the UK. Late Night Feed, the social-first film from 4Studio will live across Channel 4’s YouTube, Facebook and Instagram channels. 

Late Night Feed was commissioned by Channel 4 Digital Commissioning Editor, Laura Marks, working closely with 4Studio Group Content Manager Jodie Miles, who brokered the partnership with MediaCom's Creative Systems division. The campaign was created in conjunction with Spirit Productions.

David Amodio, deputy head of digital innovation and 4Studio, 4Studio said: “We are thrilled to be continuing our partnership with Maltesers. Late Night Feed is a great example of Channel 4’s approach to building repeatable entertainment formats for our audience and brands within the social space through 4Studio. This year’s campaign continues to drive change through entertainment and focuses on another important issue close to our heart.”

Laura Marks, senior digital commissioning editor, Channel 4 said: "Working with Maltesers and Spirit on a campaign of this nature has been a real joy. Humour is such a great way to land an important message and it’s been brilliant to creatively work with the teams again to explore the uniquely challenging but wonderful experience of being a working mum."

To further drive awareness of the campaign amongst mothers, Maltesers collaborated with BuzzFeed, Inc. to produce engaging editorial content, as #TheMaternityReturn partnership is one of the first to span both BuzzFeed and HuffPost in the UK.

BuzzFeed, Inc. held a roundtable discussion with mums and Pregnant Then Screwed founder Joeli Brearley in London, where mums shared their experiences of returning to work after maternity leave. A research study was also conducted about how women felt returning to work and what actually helped them through it - the results of which are used in an infographic video series as part of the social campaign.

The roundtable discussion came up with a series of guidelines and tips for women returning to work after taking maternity leave, which can be viewed on the BuzzFeed UK site here. The HuffPost article, which hears from mums on their return to work can be found here. 

Caroline Fenner, BuzzFeed’s commercial director for Europe said: “A team of women worked on this campaign and we are so pleased to see it live. It was a natural fit with multiple brands from our portfolio and will really hit home with our audiences across both HuffPost and BuzzFeed - who love authentic content that makes them think. I am excited for our team to launch more campaigns like this across multiple of our properties.”

Maltesers also continues its collaboration with Comic Relief, part of a multi-year partnership, as money donated by Maltesers is helping to fund organisations aimed at supporting women’s maternal mental health and helping to empower women in the workplace.