Digital campaign of Prega News: Lending ears to maternity blues

The ad is part of the brand's initiative encouraging corporates to make the workplace pregnancy-friendly

Prega News has established strong brand recall with the help of advertisements involving celebrity endorsers such as Shilpa Shetty and Kareena Kapoor as well as initiatives like product placement in films. The brand known for pregnancy test kits, manufactured by Mankind Pharmaceuticals, has now turned to addressing the issue of postpartum depression—an anxiety disorder associated with childbirth—among working women.
 
In the new digital campaign, the ad which runs for more than three minutes shows a urban professional grappling with her anxieties after returning to work as a new mother. She is low and also has to battle a perception of being a difficult boss as she overhears her colleagues. As she struggles through her fresh challenge of balancing tasks at home and in office, she ends up with harsh words for a peon and breaking down immediately afterwards. As she leaves office filled with self-doubt one day, she asks her colleagues if she’s not needed by them anymore. They empathise with her situation and reassure her of her leadership abilities.
 
The ad, themed as “Your second home”, is part of the brand’s initiative encouraging corporates to make minor changes in their workplace to make it pregnancy-friendly so that it is like a second home for them.
 
The company points out that its research showed an alarming fact—one in five new moms in India suffer from postpartum depression. This prompted the brand to move its conversation from pregnancy to post-pregnancy.
 
Rajeev Juneja, CEO, Mankind Pharma, says, “Last year, we took on the social responsibility of sensitising workplaces towards pregnant women. As a sequel to our corporate behaviour change effort, this time we wanted to speak to new moms making a comeback at work, which led us to postpartum depression and the taboo attached to it. Taking out philosophy of serving life further, we decided to bring it to light.”
 

A snapshot from Prega News digital campaign

The campaign, timed to coincide with Women’s Day celebrations, is present on social media channels including bloggers, parenting sites, OTT platforms, besides on-ground activation. Juneja says the brand is targeting issues relevant to every working mother, and passively, every mother. Prega News is the leading brand in the category as per IMS-Health, January 2018.
 
ADK Fortune was the creative agency behind the campaign. Akashneel Dasgupta, executive creative director and senior vice-president of the agency, says, “The brief from the company was to come up with the second leg to #YourSecondHome. The common-yet-unspoken issue of postpartum depression, and the serious need for its awareness, made it our big idea. The next step was to mould it into an interesting story for social media consumption. In thinking that, we just kept two things in mind: be sensitive; don’t make it look like an extension of the first campaign.”
 
Dev Batra, co-founder of Lyxel Labs and Flamingo—the agencies responsible for digital strategy and promotion of the campaign, says, “When Prega News shared the idea, we wanted to ensure that this initiative reaches out to everyone and the problem is understood by all. Through Yoursecondhome.co.in, we are getting people to know more about postpartum depression, and also take a stand and support this cause.”
 
Prega News leads the market with 70 per cent share. The traditional advertising with Shilpa Shetty and Kareena Kapoor will be sustained, even as it brings out ad the “Your Second Home” website, taking on one cause at a time.