Submitted by Smoking Gun

Munchkin weaning influencer campaign

Smoking Gun built an Instagram advocacy programme of real mums and experts for baby brand Munchkin, lifting sales of the hero weaning product by 29%.

Increased Instagram following by 53%Instagram follower increase
Plus a total campaign reach of 5million and engagement rate of 5%.campaign reach and engagement rate
150k content interactionscontent interactions
Sales of weaning products rose significantly (up 29% for the hero product).hero product sales increase
Smoking Gun's campaign contributed to a 5% rise in prompted brand awareness and a 10% rise in sales YoY.prompted brand awareness and sales increase YoY

Case in 60 seconds

Munchkin was already a powerhouse in the global baby products market, yet the page states it needed to build better brand awareness in the UK, where recognition and early adoption among new parents were not yet established.

The campaign appears to turn on the agency's stated finding that recommendation from other mums was the single biggest influence to purchase, because those recommendations were already being sought on social media rather than from the brand.

Rather than advertise product function, Smoking Gun recruited a panel of real mums and trusted experts as advocates and content creators, showing that the products made family life more enjoyable as well as easier.

Instagram carried the work: real mums made 'mum truths' videos of toddlers road testing the spill-free cup and stay-put suction plate, Dani Dyer fronted a weaning bundle competition, and Annabel Karmel supplied recipe Stories and an Instagram Live Q&A, supported by product placement in The Independent and Mother & Baby online.

Smoking Gun reports a 5% rise in prompted brand awareness, a 10% rise in sales YoY, sales of hero product up 29%, 150k content interactions, 3million video views and Instagram following increased by 53%, with the product in Dani Dyer's post selling out on Amazon.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

New parents in the UK, principally mums, who are joining the weaning category and seeking product advice.
Weaning is presented on the page as fun, mess and mayhem rather than as a clean product benefit, so the brand had to be comfortable appearing inside the difficulty of mealtimes rather than above it.
The page states that 700,000 new babies are born in the UK each year, so the category audience continually renews itself and a brand cannot build awareness once and hold it.
Munchkin was positioned as the brand of choice for new parents by moving from the functional into the emotional realm of family mealtimes, according to the agency's own account.
Based on the available evidence, mums were treating other mums as the purchase authority and using social media as the place to collect that authority, which is why the roster was built from users rather than from spokespeople.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Amazon
  • Instagram

Partners

  • Smoking Gun (lead_agency)

Participation mechanic

  • A competition fronted by Dani Dyer to win a bumper bundle of weaning goodies, plus an Instagram Live Q&A with Annabel Karmel.

Creator role

  • Annabel Karmel — creator
  • Dani Dyer — creator

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult type
Instagram follower increaseIncreased Instagram following by 53%performance
campaign reach and engagement ratePlus a total campaign reach of 5million and engagement rate of 5%.engagement_rate
content interactions150k content interactionsengagements
hero product sales increaseSales of weaning products rose significantly (up 29% for the hero product).performance
prompted brand awareness and sales increase YoYSmoking Gun's campaign contributed to a 5% rise in prompted brand awareness and a 10% rise in sales YoY.performance
video views3million video viewsvideo_views

Why Smoking Gun's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Where purchase is driven by peer recommendation, recruiting the people who already make those recommendations works better than buying reach, because the advocacy arrives in the format the audience was already searching for.

  2. 2

    Splitting the roster into everyday users, a celebrity and a category expert gives each tier a distinct job, so the real mums carry credibility, the celebrity carries scale and the expert carries authority.

  3. 3

    Product demonstration reads as content rather than advertising when the demonstration is a toddler making a mess, which suggests the humour was doing the work the product claim could not do alone.

  4. 4

    A competition mechanic converts passive reach into a countable action, which is consistent with the follower uplift and the reported Amazon sell out being attached to the celebrity partnership rather than to the wider content stream.

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