According to Sainsbury's research conducted by NetMums, 80% of mums spend a substantial proportion of Mother’s Day cooking and washing up, while only 9% have ever had a meal cooked for them by a family member on the day. These insights didn't just lead the media strategy for Sainsbury's Mother's Day campaign, but actually influenced what products were featured.

1. Winning Mother’s Day in the supermarket sector is an escalating
battle, with retailer ad spend up 35% YOY. Sainsbury’s knew
their competitors would focus on the price points of typical
Mother’s day products (the usual suspects of flowers, chocolate
and prosecco) as well as meal solutions around the Sunday
Roast. So we went looking for a better way.
The research revealed that 80% of Mums spend a substantial
proportion of ‘their special day’ washing up and cooking the
Sunday roast.
Indeed, only 9% of mums have ever had a meal cooked for them
by a member of their family on Mother’s Day.
Most telling, however, was the research output that told us that
most Mums consider their Mother’s Day to be over by 10.22am.
Once they’ve been given a card and a present, things go back to
normal pretty quickly.
Background and objectives
Insight
Mother’s Day is supposed to be ‘day off’for Mum. However, research
by NetMums commissioned for Sainsbury’s showed that reality is
quite different.
Executive Summary
Through research that discovered that Mother’s Day is over for most
Mums almost before it starts, we used newspapers to ‘hide’ a
Mother’s Day recipe that would help make her day – or, at least, her
morning!
We focused heavily on the Friday and Saturday, hiding our idea in
predominantly male environments such as the sports sections of key
national press titles, offering Dad some last minute inspiration and time to
keep the surprise tucked well away from Mum.
We successfully managed to minimise exposure to the campaign from
Mums, and more importantly, inspired Dad and the kids to cook pancakes
with a twist.
These revealing insights didn't just lead the media strategy, they
actually influenced the products that would be featured in the
campaign. There would be no last-minute gift ads from Sainsbury’s.
Instead, the focus would be on breakfast /brunch so that Sainsbury’s
could make a difference on Mother’s Day while Mum still felt
special.
The plan

2. The execution of this insight came in the guise of a little twist on a recipe
for brunch pancakes, -adding jam to the traditional mix. But whilst we had
the recipe to equip Dad and the kids to deliver a pleasant surprise - because
Mum’s expectations were probably pretty low - a tactical media plan was
needed to make sure it stayed a surprise.
We successfully managed to minimise exposure to the campaign from
Mums, and more importantly, inspired Dad and the kids to cook pancakes
with a twist.
With Sunday opening hours meaning that Sainsbury’s stores were only
open from 10am, (22 mins before our ‘deadline’) we focused heavily on
the Friday and Saturday, hiding the pancake twist idea in predominantly
male environments such as the sports sections of key national press titles
offering Dad some last minute inspiration and time to keep the surprise
tucked well away from Mum.
Results
‘We amplified this across our digital display campaign for a cross platform
presence across the newsbrands’ for maximum impact.

3. Client Quote
“With an increasingly competitive market, we needed to ensure we planned our
Mother’s Day campaign smarter than ever to cut through – this meant a customer
insight led creative execution and media plan! Withclear male skewed environments
available in national press, it was a clear lead channel for us to execute the tactical
strand of our campaign. Sports sections enabled us to “hide” the brunch twists from
Mum, arm Dad with a real surprise and remain in line with the real rhythms of
modern families lives as Sainsbury’s continually strives to do.”
Mike Neilson, Campaign Manager, Sainsbury’s