National Weaning Week takes place from 3rd – 9th May this year. Created by award winning marketing consultancy, The Media Snug, in 2018, Weaning Week 2020 in association with Organix was a huge hit. We spoke with Media Snug Director, Kerry Haynes, to find out more…

What is National Weaning Week and why do you pull it together?

The main objective of the week is to bring together parents, carers, grandparents and brands to offer tips, information and recipes to make weaning and feeding as easy and fun as possible. By creating a supportive network and place where parents search for information and connect with each other, experts and leading baby brands, the aim is to empower families to wean their child as nutritiously as possible, without feeling confused or pressurised.

What do you have planned for this year’s event?

At this stage, it’s too early to say.  We all know it’s hard to plan for tomorrow at the moment, yet alone for 5 months’ time!  Weaning Week is an online event, which doesn’t just attract visitors during the Week itself but throughout the year. Our online Weaning Workshops were a roaring success last year, so we will definitely be looking to expand those, not just for the Week, but on a longer term basis. 

Which brands were involved with Weaning Week last year?

In 2020, we saw more than 120 brands, retailers and experts come together to provide competitions, articles, recipes, twitter chat, Instagram Lives, Workshops and product reviews, and featured in press nationwide.

Brands who partnered with the campaign in 2020 included Organix, Vital Baby, Nuby, Itsy, Mum & Me, Your Baby Club, Bibetta, Doidy Cup, Baby Cup, Tidy Tot and Tesco to name a few!

A survey, which ran in partnership with Your Baby Club, highlighted answers to concerns and fears parents have when weaning e.g choking, how they plan to wean, favourite retailers and influences when feeding baby.

And was it a success?

Absolutely! Just to throw a few stats at you!  We achieved 30,225 competition entries, 20.3 million reach on Twitter across 4,992 accounts, a 1,387,900 reach on Instagram, as well as 1,787,574 reach on Facebook across 790 accounts and 2 million reach on our Twitter chat with 623 tweets across 63 accounts.

We had over 120 brands, retailers and organisations joining in the conversation, with 60,500 page views on the Weaning Week website. Our partner experts offered 11 free online workshops which had over 3600 views – and we were especially proud when the BBC created a specific content page for Weaning Week.

If brands and retailers want to get involved in Weaning Week 2021, what can they do?

We want to smash the 2020 event out of the water and want as many brands, retailers and distributors involved as possible.  We have a range of sponsorship packages available, ranging from headline sponsor to a standalone competition. 

We’re also looking out for recipes, blogs and experts to lead workshops and provide content for our website. To find out more, email us or download the partnership pack.