For nearly 10 years, Cow & Gate has supplied baby and toddler milk to customers in Hong Kong. Over time, the brand saw a need to challenge its thinking to ensure it continued to remain relevant to the shifting mindsets and media habits of its key audience — millennial moms. Qing Ye, former marketing director and now disruptive innovation director at Cow & Gate’s parent company, reveals how the brand adapted its advertising strategy after gaining a better understanding of the nuances of young moms aged 25 to 35, allowing Cow & Gate to meet them with a meaningful message on the platforms important to them.
As purchasers of baby and toddler milk, millennial moms have always been a key audience for us. In APAC, almost 9 out of 10 women say they share or have primary responsibility for daily shopping,1 so our advertising efforts are focused on how we can remain top of mind — and top of their shopping lists.
Traditionally, we had advertised our Cow & Gate products on TV, but consumer research revealed that millennial moms were researching more online before purchase,2 and 94% of millennial moms had watched a video clip or visited a video-sharing site in the past month.3 Ipsos research revealed that by focusing investments in online video, YouTube could be twice as effective for driving top-of-mind awareness and even more effective in driving purchase intent.4
1. Moms feel pressure to make the right choices
Moms in Hong Kong are inundated with information on how to best approach parenting. Our research showed they are overwhelmed with the variety of options available to them, and as a result they feel incredible pressure to know how to make the right choices for their children.
To help give moms the confidence they needed to make informed choices, we focused our messaging on educating them about the ingredients that promote the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut and support a healthy digestive system. The idea was to empower moms to make informed choices for their children and take away some of the stress of deciding which product is best for them.