Channel Mum is unique a social enterprise in the parenting sector combining professional advice from top UK experts, alongside crowdsourced knowledge from influencers and ordinary parents. There is a strong emphasis on help for mental health issues with free support available around the clock from trained psychologists, counsellors and health visitors. Channel Mum has a social reach of over five and a half million mums with more than half a million unique users each month. Founded just three years ago, it is now the UKs fastest-growing parenting site. The objective of this project with 72Point was to raise awareness of Channel Mum’s counselling support service and to drive engagement with the Channel Mum website.
‘You are not Alone’ is an online forum where members can submit questions, reach out to other mums or provide help and useful connections. As a social enterprise with a limited PR budget, Channel Mum relies on low-cost but effective public relations campaigns to raise awareness of their vital work, to drive traffic to their website and support the growth of their membership. To achieve these objectives, Channel Mum opted to utilise 72Point’s News Generation services. 72Point has pioneered the adaptation of the News Gen model for digital media, supporting clients to grasp the varied opportunities of the online market. News Gen has become a daily staple for newspapers (both print and digital), and a cost-effective way to secure much-needed coverage at the “front of the book” and to generate engagement across all major social media platforms.
The website targets Millennial and Gen Z parents and hosts ‘textbook v truth’ video series supported by a forum where mums and dads can discuss parenting issues and receive community support. Channel Mum hosts a series of forums where key information and discussions are shared relating to a wide range of key issues, but with a particular focus on mental health. In response to mounting concern across the UK in the last couple of years relating to growing mental health issues amongst key demographics of society, Channel Mum has launched a series of online toolkits, including ‘Mum’s Mental Health Course’, ‘The Channel Mum Anxiety Course’ as well as a number of campaigns to support discussion around mental health. Channel Mum is working to raise the profile of this service amongst its key audiences. The site receives a large volume of User Generated Content from mothers – and received this harrowing video in 2018 of a young mother who had filmed one of her panic attacks.
In the minute-long video, Sophie Mei Lan from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, can be seen struggling to breathe and hysterically breaking down while attempting to hide her anguish from her family. The mother-of-two sobs: ‘I just don’t want to be here – I just can’t cope.’ Sophie filmed her panic attack to show other parents what the frightening disorder looks like. ‘I wanted to show what mental illness can be like – warts and all,’ she said. ‘Some people may find it strange I picked up my phone, but it shows real life at its most ugly and raw.’
Channel Mum supported Sophie’s decision to publish this content and applauded her for her bravery in raising awareness of the reality of parenting with mental health issues such as anxiety and panic attacks. Channel Mum partnered with Sophie, a digital journalist, blogger and vlogger, harnessing the power of her personal parenting audience to maximise potential reach of her video. Channel Mum then approached 72Point to ensure that this content was expertly – and sensitively – packaged up for the mainstream media and distributed to top tier media publications who could raise awareness of Channel Mum’s free online counselling services to an international audience as well as to decrease stigma around mums struggling with mental health issues.
The campaign achieved both extensive online and broadcast coverage and was a ‘watershed moment’ allowing mums around the UK and abroad to open up and share their experiences without fear of judgement. The coverage saw a 670% spike in users visiting the site and the forum, with hundreds stating they had seen the coverage and come directly. Following the coverage, Channel Mum’s user numbers are rising over ten per cent each and every month. The site now has more users on YouTube and Instagram than legacy parenting sites such as Netmums and Mumsnet which have existed for 18 years. The project was an astounding success, securing 50 pieces of coverage in top tier news publications in the UK, United States, Australia, Indonesia and Singapore. Top UK news coverage appearing in The Daily Mail and MailOnline, The Mirror, The Independent, Metro, Daily Record, as well as top global news sites including MSN and Yahoo! as well as parenting news sites including Little Things.com, Zena.com and The Bump.com. The project secured on online readership over over 1.79 billion and encouraged over 3,000 social shares, with positive engagement from Channel Mum’s key target audience of millennial and Gen Z parents and families with young children, especially mothers and professional. The project caused Channel Mum’s media exposure to peak in Q4 (see report attached). As well as national media, the article appearing on “The Bump.com”, with 1.4M reach, drove positive sentiment in this quarter, increasing Channel Mum’s net tonality by 93 points.
Most significantly, Sophie’s bravery and the sensitive handling of the story by Channel Mum and 72Point, resulted in the story being picked up by ITV’s Good Morning, where Sophie was invited to talk on the programme about her struggles with panic attacks and anxiety. Sophie appeared alongside Emma Kenny, one of Channel Mum’s top psychologists and mental health experts. Together they were able to draw on key elements of the news generation project, and reach out directly to parents about Sophie’s experience. The broadcast coverage yielded great feedback from mothers, relieved to see someone with similar issues to their own being given a positive platform in the British media. Positive comments flooded in via social media as a result of the story, including one reader named ‘The Life of Laith Abu Naim’ who tweeted:
‘I just found your channel through the daily mail newspaper. Thank you so much for sharing you are amazing. I will for sure be following you on here and Instagram keep up the incredible work’ :heart:
The project achieved further media coverage when Good Morning presenter Eamon Holmes, inspired by Sophie’s bravery, chose to share his own personal experiences with panic attacks live on air, revealing personal details, alongside his wife, of his struggles with anxiety stemming from feelings of guilt around the sudden death of his father, Leonard. Video clips of Holmes’ personal story generated further coverage in the Daily Mail and the Metro as well as on further lifestyle, consumer and business websites. With 72Point’s support, the overall result of the project was a viral story with 620 pieces of worldwide coverage – a cost of just £8 per piece. Further positive impact from this project include the growth of Channel Mum’s membership, which has increased by 10% since the project was released.
Siobhan Freegard, founder of Channel Mum.com said: “We didn’t see this a PR story, we saw it as a way to get parents the help that so many need but are afraid to acknowledge or ask for. Throughout the whole process. 72Point were exemplary, handling the material with care, sensitivity and understanding – and the coverage vastly exceeded our expectations. Two months on we are still seeing daily traffic driven by the campaign.”
Managing Director of 72Point, Chris Pharo, said: “It’s a great feeling to have been able to create such an important moment in the media, emboldening mothers to share their personal experiences without fear of stigma or negative reaction. I am very proud of our team for handling this project with professionalism and compassion – they deserve to win this award.
For more info on the case study. visit this page: https://www.72point.com/pr-case-studies/raising-awareness-of-maternal-mental-health/