The Miscarriage Association had an awareness problem and a specific audience they needed to reach - women who have recently suffered the loss of a baby. This is a huge life event, but one that’s people find it hard to talk about. We reached that audience directly with our moving cards and indirectly through the media. Putting help and support quite literally in the hands of those who needed it, at the exact time they needed it. We also raised awareness of the Miscarriage Association through the media response. And the campaign achieved clear and measurable results.

Situation

1 in 4 pregnant women will later find out they have lost their baby. It’s a horrible, horrible experience. It’s also a lonely one. Lonely because those around you often don’t know how to acknowledge what’s happened – they can’t find the right words or worse still, any words. This can make the woman feel like this important life event, however brief, has gone unnoticed and will be forgotten. The Miscarriage Association also has an acknowledgement issue in the UK - yet is here to offer support and advice to those going through this tough time.

Brief

Get miscarriage acknowledged as an important life event. Get the Miscarriage Association more widely acknowledged. Give words of acknowledgment for those who can’t find them.

Make women feel like that albeit brief life has been acknowledged.

Objective

Raise awareness of the Miscarriage Association and get their help/support as needed

In the UK, our greeting cards stores have large display shelves. On those shelves sit cards that recognize every important life event, including Birth, Driving test, New Home, Engagement, even divorce. But there’s one important event that happens to millions of women which is not acknowledged – Miscarriage.

People find it difficult to find the right words to acknowledge baby loss. They often say the wrong thing. Or say nothing at all. Making the experience even more lonely for the woman. So we created Cards of Acknowledgement - beautiful simple cards designed for women who have suffered miscarriage. Every message was screened by a panel of women who’ve been through it. Every bit of typography, is the handwriting of women who’ve been through it. Importantly - inside every card were details of the Miscarriage Association, putting help into the hands of women at the exact time they needed it.

We wanted to put help into the hands of women at the exact time they needed it. We wanted to get Miscarriage acknowledged as an important life event. We wanted to raise awareness of the Miscarriage Association. And we wanted to give a lasting momento that would acknowledge a life that was briefly here, for years to come. It was important that Cards of Acknowledgement carried messages that were spot on. So every line was screened by a panel of women who have had miscarriages, and the typography was the handwriting of women who’d been through the experience. All of whom said these were the words they wish they’d heard.

Call to action

Contact the Miscarriage Association

Implementation, time line, placement, scale

We launched the campaign in London card stores through the retail chain PostMark, the morning after Mothers Day in the UK.

List the results

We got the acknowledgement we wanted.

870k people read about our campaign.

BBC Radio 5 Live featured the campaign.

Visits to the Miscarriage Association doubled overnight.

But most importantly, loved ones found the words they couldn’t find before.

And we got help into the hands of women who needed it, at the exact time they needed it.