ALERT: THIS IS A SALES PITCH. IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BENEFIT FROM ACCESSING FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN LOOK AWAY NOW ;)

Young Families Bump, Baby and Toddler Shows are brilliant

I’m so sorry. I’ve been doing that thing again of thinking that everyone has telepathy. Which of course I know we don’t, even though we are all parents extraordinaire…

So I’m now officially telling you that the next Young Families Bump, Baby and Toddler Show will be held on Sunday 27 March 2011, at Watford Leisure Centre. I’m in trouble because I’ve not been telling everyone about it enough… So here goes….

Do you have a business that would benefit from meeting 750 people who are either pregnant, new parents or parents of pre schoolers?
Would you like to meet them in a family friendly environment?
Do you want to be seen as a supporter of your local NHS Maternity Unit and benefit from them promoting attendance at the show as being a good thing?

Well, the Watford Bump, Baby and Toddler Show is the place for you to exhibit at…

The early bird deadline official finished on Friday 14 January, but we’ve had a rush of enquiries this week and some of them ended up in our spam folders, so we are telling everyone about it again, and extending the early bird deadline until next Friday, 21 January 2011. This will give everyone who wants to, opportunity to book at the early bird rate of £150 instead of £175. We’re biased, but we think that our Bump, Baby and Toddler Shows are great. But rather than sell the benefits of exhibiting to you ourselves, we like to let other people do it for us!

In light of our previous “baby show” experiences, your show was fab, your team were on hand if we needed anything and we didn’t feel that anything was too much trouble.  We had a really good day, were extremely pleased with our sales and bookings. Thank you for organising such a great event. Debi Hogston,www.waterbabies.co.uk

“We attend a number of ‘baby shows’ across the South of England but none of them compare to the Young Families events. We have now attended two Young Families events and they are extremely well organised, well advertised and well run. The team behind Young Families are second to none. We will not miss a Young Families event.”  Emma, www.waterbabybirthingpoolhire.co.uk

What does it cost?
Early Bird, single pitch (2x2m), with quarter page colour advert in Show Guide = £150.00

Benefits for Exhibitors at the 2011 Shows.
A quarter page colour advertisement within the Show Guide, at no extra cost.
If you need electricity, contact us and we’ll do our best to help, at no extra cost.
If you need a wall behind you, let us know and if we can arrange this, we will, at no extra cost.
We provide one 2m x 2m pitch, two chairs and a table.

New partnerships
We have teamed up with the Maternity Unit at Watford General Hospital, who will be promoting the Show via their antenatal and outpatients clinics with flyers and posters. This exclusive arrangement for our Show is a significant new promotional vehicle and we will make the most of this opportunity with our design and print offering for it. The Maternity Unit will also be attending on the day with Midwives and their Infant Feeding Co-ordinator hosting a drop in, informal clinic for anyone and everyone who wants to ask questions, get information or find support. It will be a huge draw for pregnant women and their families and we expect a high volume of footfall on the day.

We will donate 100% of the income from the door entry to the Maternity Unit at Watford General Hospital.

We know that you are busy, so we don’t do 20 page booking packs. We enjoy what we do, and it shines through in our attention to detail, from our pre show communications, to providing people to help  you unload on the day of the Show. Our brilliant re booking rate and out of area exhibitors demonstrates that our Shows really are the way to meet your market. We expect at least 750 people on the day, based on footfall at our previous shows, and hope that you will be with us to meet our visitors.

The Watford Young Families Bump, Baby and Toddler Show booking form can be downloaded here. We look forward to receiving your booking shortly

If you have any questions, please call or email as is easiest for you: 01223 501520 | 07515 910231 | liz@westoncommunications.org.uk

PS. The website is now in being updated for the new show and will be live shortly. But please check it out in the meantime, so you can see how we run our other shows.www.youngfamilies.co.uk

DISCLAIMER: I have been working on this blog post for 90 minutes now, trying to get the fourth sample of a Guide to go below the other three. So I know this is not perfect and it’s driving me nuts, but I really want you to be able to have this sneak peek, so I’m going to post this anyway.

We thought you may like to see some of the new designs Tami Brown, our Cambridge designer has come up with. She does such a good job of making them visually appealing whilst still have  a professional look and feel to them, that retains something of the NHS about it, in a good way.

For those of you who don’t know what the New Baby Guides are, here’s the short version of what we usually tell people who are looking to advertise in them:

The New Baby Guides are published by Cambridge marketing and pr company, Weston Communications. One of our specialisms is in baby marketing, for both profit and not for profit organisations. We have a range of experience in the baby products market and marketing to families. We know our stuff. More than 104,000 New Baby Guides are printed annually, and go to pregnant women or new mothers at varying antenatal or postnatal stages, depending on each local NHS Maternity Unit. Marketing baby products is very sensitive area. Few businesses do it. Along with Bounty, we have the strictest guidelines we know of. All businesses have a local presence and are WHO and UNICEF baby friendly compliant. There are no major national brands. If editorial is accepted, it is generic rather than product/service led and has to be educational and for the benefit of the reader. Unlike other baby advertising, we have a strict policy on ratios for content to advert and every single advert is approved by each NHS Maternity Unit we work with.

Sample 1: This is one for Chelmsford, who like things to look classy and sleek

Sample 4: The Luton and Dunstable edition of the New Baby Guide is representative of the most popular cover image of 2010. Heads of Midwifery, staff, lay groups and the general public all love this image. The baby looks straight at you, and is on a neutral background which allow the text to work neatly with it, rather than in contrast to it.

We would be pleased to hear your thoughts on the covers. Do you like them? Would you open one of these Guides?

We appreciate your opinion on this as they are very much a work in progress.

The sales bit:

With their glossy covers and professional design, it’s no wonder that we’ve got a waiting list of NHS Units wanting to work with us. If you are within the NHS and would like information on how we can work together, email liz@westoncommunications.org.uk
If you would like to be considered as a potential advertiser in the New Baby Guides, contact liz@westoncommunications.org.uk for more information and we’ll pop a sample in the post.
Find out about the national award which we won for the New Baby Guides recently.

This is our first ever award. I’ve been awarded the title of “Future 100 Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2010″. It’s amazing. 100 of us, from thousands of applicants, have been awarded this title. And it’s extra special, because you have to demonstrate that you are socially responsible to win it.

I’m so proud of this, but it’s not just for me. It’s for Hannah, who works  so hard to keep me on schedule and manage all our admin, scheduling and processes, Husband Richard who quite literally keeps the home fires burning, looks after our boys and runs the house so I can do this, Tami who makes the New Baby Guides look so great, Steven who does the research and Fiona who helps us with sales.

We have donated£16,000 to NHS Maternity Units since we started nearly two years ago.

NHS Maternity Units love what we are doing for them.  Glynis Moore is Head of Midwifery at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital “We are delighted with the Norfolk and Norwich New Baby Guide and thank you for making this publication possible…. Our readers will benefit from all the information therein and we look forward to continuing to work with you in the future.”

I’m asked all the time as to what the New Baby Guides are. The most basic answer is that they replace the piles of leaflets NHS Maternity Units used to give to women in pregnancy and postnatally. So Maternity Units love them because they save them time (in getting the leaflets produced, printed  and onto wards), money (because we produce them at no cost to the Units we work with) and, we produce something much more professional than they would be able to with their limited resources. It’s also a good thing environmentally as we save on paper output from the Units, so it ticks all the boxes.

We work with 15 different Maternity Units across the UK. We have a waiting list of more Units who want to work with us, who will come on board in 2011. We give NHS Maternity Units complete control of their Guide. From the front cover, to the style on the inside, to colour schemes, images and of course, the content,  it’s all within their control.

Advertisers have a local presence and are approved by each Maternity Unit. All advertising is Babyfriendly and WHO compliant.

Is this a lot to juggle? YES! Wouldn’t it be easier if everyone did everything the same? YES!

But the reason why our Units love what we do, is because we give them complete control of their publication and can update it annually, and it’s all for FREE.

So how is it funded then? New Baby Guides are funded by advertising from local businesses. Businesses want to access local families so that they will buy their products or services. Being in an NHS publication is THE way to get themselves in front of pregnant and new parents, so they all want to be in the Guides. Whilst the NHS Maternity Units each have a disclaimer and do not promote or  endorse anyone in any way, this is the closest a business can get to being in the Unit itself.

We received a lovely email this morning  from Debi Hogston of Waterbabies, to use in our press release: “Waterbabies is delighted to hear that Liz and the New Baby Guides have won this award. Waterbabies features in all of the New Baby Guides because they are a smart way for us to support NHS Maternity Units and access the local parenting community. Liz’s decision to profit share with Maternity Units is admirable in the current climate and we applaud her strategy. We are pleased that their impact has been formally recognised and congratulate Liz and the New Baby Guides team on their success.”

So this is me, beaming, collecting my award in London, last night. Richard kindly came with me to take photos and be supportive. And he can verify that two of the judges – one  was the Head of Business Branch banking for Natwest (!!!!) told me that they’d remembered my application and commented on different aspects of it to me. I stood there, trying to think of something to say other than “Thank you” because I couldn’t believe that they’d remembered my writing. To hear them telling me  that they were impressed with what I was doing, and how they could see me scaling it up was, well, brilliant. I’m looking forward to having their input and support as I go to grow the New Baby Guides in the future. What mentors eh?

If you’ve not seen a copy of the Guides, or would like to be featured in them, just email  me at liz@westoncommunications.org.ukor call 01223 501520 / 07515 910231 and we’ll get samples in the post today, along with info on how you can become involved.

Do you have a presence in the New Baby Guides? If you do, please comment here on who you are and what you do, as we’ve got all sorts of media coverage coming up and I’d be delighted to ensure that you are mentioned as a supporter of them and local Maternity Units. We couldn’t produce the Guides without the support of our advertisers, so it would be great to get extra recognition for you as well.

If you’re in the media, this is the press release. I am available for press interviews and radio discussions on all  matters entrepreneurial, parenting, NHS and family related so please get in touch.

Here’s to a fantastic Friday everyone!

PS. Check out the rest of our site to see compliments on our work to date with the Guides, Baby Shows and PR and Marketing support we provide to businesses large and small….

Following a recent catch up with Penny Brett (Head of Midwifery at Peterbrough Maternity Unit), I’ve been inspired to start a behind the scenes series. Although she’s not been in post long, she’s got to grips with a staffing issue and recruited a record number of Midwives in a  matter of months. I asked her about how she’d done it…

How many new midwives have you recruited?
We have recruited 44 extra midwives at all levels of experience. They will work throughout the service and it means that we have 1 midwife to every 30 births (1:30). Our Community Midwives have had their caseloads halved so that they can spend more time with women in pregnancy and postnatal period and we also want to support more women to have a home birth. In the Unit, we have doubled the staffing on the birthing centre so that more women can access it. We have also doubled the staffing on transitional care to provide greater support to babies who need it. And we’ve increased staff on the Delivery Unit to provide one to one support in labour – midwives will no longer scrub in theatres.  This will allow them to stay with women instead. And finally, we’ve increased the staffing on the postnatal ward to provide more support postnatally.

We have appointed two specialist midwives to work with women with mental health issues/ women with substance addiction. To back this up, we have also recruited more support staff so that midwives are not tied up doing non midwifery roles. All in all – better support – not only in women’s choices but in their care delivery.

How did you recruit so many midwives – where did they hear about your recruitment drive?
We recruited in national professional journals, job fairs and social media networks such including Facebook. Every time a midwife logged onto facebook our advert popped up. We also developed a microsite with extra info for interested candidates and a glossy magazine. We also advertised on Google. All strands were interlinked – we even advertised on the radio at the time midwives would be travelling to work.

How does this recruitment drive tie in with the opening of the new Unit? 
All the midwives will have started before we move and will be orientated to the new hospital – so that’s when we are really going to see the benefit of the extra staff. It also means that we can start looking at new services such as we will be launching  a maternity helpline which will provide one point of access to the service. 

When do you move in?
The new Delivery Unit will open at 9am on 30^th November 2010. We can’t wait! 

Will women like the new Unit more than the old one? Why?
Definitely – it’s a case of working out what to tell you about first. The new unit is bright and airy with an atrium at the main reception – there will be a coffee shop as well as some retail outlets. All the delivery rooms are large with en-suites. There is a birthing pool. There is also a special birthing room for women with twins (it’s bigger and accommodates 2 resuscitaires). There will be four birthing rooms on the birth centre. The postnatal ward and transitional care ward is spacious with side rooms – the bays only have four beds but with a cross layout so really spacious.

What’s the biggest challenge facing your Unit over the next 12 months?
Moving to the new unit….

Interesting stuff isn’t it? It’s great to see the NHS responding to a challenge and being smart in their use of social media as part of their comms strategy. The sheer numbers of recruits demonstrates that it’s worked, which is great news for everyone in Peterborough and the surrounding area. I’ll keep you posted on their move as it happens. 

What do you think  Maternity Units could do more of to keep up with their users in the social media field? Should they be on facebook and twitter? How would they manage the comments they received? Would there be a tangible difference in increasing user numbers? How would they monitor it? What do you think of the NHS using social media?

Leave a comment and let us know your thoughts… And finally, if you’ve got a behind the scenes story to share, email me so we can feature you on the blog.