The Customer in the Story: Every Mother Counts

By Jennifer Aaker, Maile Lesica, Vinamarta Singal, Christy Turlington Burns
2020 | Case No. M388 | Length 4 pgs.

Every Mother Counts, a nonprofit set up to help more mothers around the world survive childbirth, was looking for a way to reignite the discussion of maternal mortality, and help activate more Americans to get involved in supporting maternal health programs around the world. Every year, more than a half-million women died from complications of childbirth, particularly post-partum hemorrhaging. Every Mother Counts had helped raise awareness of this issue with a documentary by founder Christy Turlington Burns, and now was looking to continue this effort.

The case study traces the thinking behind the organization’s highly successful “No Mothers Day” campaign and public service announcement, and how this effort embodied the best practices of a participatory campaign, and move people to action. Generating buzz, in this case, meant breaking some of the standard rules of how to set up public campaigns.

Learn More

No Mothers Day

Memories of Mom

Delivering Hope: Maternal Health Heroes

Learning Objective

This case is designed to let students examine what makes an action-oriented campaign successful, by laying out the components of a particular campaign. Students will discuss the situation in the case to learn how organizations can brainstorm to make their communications stand out, and grab the public’s attention in new ways.

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