Summary
Small Steps Big Changes (SSBC) is a 10 year £45m transformation programme, hosted by Nottingham CityCare Partnership, supported by the National Lottery Community Fund’s (NLCF) A Better Start (ABS) initiative.
Nutrition is a key outcome area for SSBC and a wide range of activities and projects have been developed and implemented over the course of the programme to support healthy eating, physical activity, oral health and reducing smoking in pregnancy. SSBC recognised that breastfeeding provides an opportunity like no other to improve the health and development of our children.
We were engaged to create a breastfeeding campaign that engaged not only mothers, but the whole family and wider local community.
Our Approach
We wanted to change the way the topic of breastfeeding was approached and showed in an awareness and behaviour change campaign. We focused on ‘brightspots’ – getting local women who have breastfed to share their experiences and challenges to inform our content. A woman-to-woman approach of sharing experience would help avoid women feeling pressured or judged. We wanted to encourage and support women to initiate breastfeeding and take it day by day and to encourage people to share their experiences from within the community. This included stories from partners, family members, friends and showed them how they could support.
Research
A challenge for us was there wasn’t an extensive evidence base of what works to change behaviour in this area, especially in the UK.
Additionally, insight showed we needed to move away from existing campaigns – shifting from why women should breastfeed to empowering and supporting women.
We started with desk analysis to understand both the evidence connected to breastfeeding, the barriers, and facilitators of breastfeeding and what works to change breastfeeding behaviour, reviewing theories and intervention options across the whole system. This enabled us to segment the population using demographics and psychographics and design primary research, which included surveys and focus groups with women of breastfeeding age, those currently breastfeeding and those that had stopped. We also spoke to partners and supporters of breastfeeding women. This enabled us to develop an intervention using self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000). The intervention was tested and further refined with the target population before launch.
Execution
The strategy was implemented through the creation of the ‘Feed Your Way’ platform with a website – Feed Your Way – and resources developed to support families and the community around them to attempt breastfeeding for as long as they needed. The platform was supported by bursts of activity within an always on strategy that made use of all touchpoints such as partners and healthcare professionals.
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We also developed a range of case study assets, including videos, focusing on six families in Nottingham. A suite of image and text-based assets, stories and copy were also developed to enable us to share more stories throughout the campaign.
The launch was further supported by a number of activities:
- Launch of www.feedyourway.co.uk
- OOH advertising on bus and tram stops, Nottingham Council house and 48 sheets across the city.
- 4-week digital ad campaigns through Facebook, Instagram and Google.
- A stakeholder event and four public launch events held.
- Circulation of a press release to local media.
- Creation and management of organic social media pages.
Results
- Over 11,000 website views at launch with 115 resource downloads.
- The website was viewed in 24 different languages.
- OOH delivered 363,800 impacts.
- Google ads CTR 1.01%, Meta ads CTR 0.73% (target 0.5%).
- Stakeholder launch (70 attendees), Public launch (over 100 people).
- Positive engagement in local media and stakeholder communications.
The three-year always on strategy was supported by bursts of activity at key points – such as a 4-week digital burst in the lead up to Father’s Day focusing more closely on how partners and co-parents could support the breastfeeding parent.
Some positive themes highlighted at the mid-point evaluation included:
- Inclusivity. The campaign was perceived to be inclusive.
- It involves men. Many comments suggested that respondents felt that the campaign included male non-birthing partners, and this was positively received. Many expressed that men may feel excluded from feeding, but that the campaign helps to mitigate that.
- The look and feel. Many expressed that they enjoyed the look and feel of the campaign.
The final evaluation, completed in collaboration with Aberystwyth University, explored the impact and implementation by using the RE-AIM framework:
- 25.5% unprompted campaign recall, with 40.5% recall among parents with children under 5.
- 52% of respondents felt encouraged to breastfeed or support a partner to do so.
- 78% agreed the campaign encouraged them to support breastfeeding women.
- Positive reception (81% liked messaging, 83% felt it was positive).
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The project was shared at the Behavioural Science and Public Health Network Conference 2023 in Birmingham and at the World Social Marketing Conference 2025 in Alicante.