Gurgle.com

How we increased Mothercare’s web traffic by 500%...

Overview
Gurgle.com is the UK’s leading social networking site for parents and parents to be, part owned by Mothercare. As part of our ongoing work for the brand we developed a news story to delve into the universally topical subject of baby names. In depth research was commissioned to unearth those classic, traditional British names of yesteryear which are on the verge of extinction and literally dying out with the older generation. The story was designed to spark interest, start conversations and link back to the gurgle.com site and its popular Baby Namer tool.

Brief
Taylor Herring was briefed to devise and execute a strategy for gurgle.com to achieve the following key objectives:

  • To further raise brand awareness for gurgle.com
  • To raise awareness of the site’s popular Baby Namer application
  • Drive traffic to the website

 

Taking the brief on board, we set about creating a credible, ‘noisy’news story to deliver national cut through for the site in the press.

The selection of a theme which would not only resonate with families across the country, but also stir up good old fashioned British pride, helped to ensure extensive brand awareness for gurgle.com which would ultimately drive traffic back to the site.

Execution
Engaging a noted statistician we looked at the most popular baby names back in 1907 which had failed to make the most popular 100 names lists in any of the last five years. The team then plotted each individual name’s relative decline in popularity over the last century to provide a fascinating insight into names which are dying out and equally, those which have endured over the years, remaining popular.
 
Results
After an extensive sell-in, the story ran fully credited in print in The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Independent, The Sun, The Times, The Metro, The Daily Record as well as The Daily Sport.

In support of the story with broadcast media, acting site editor Sarah Stone completed 23 radio interviews, and site editor Nifa McLaughlin coming off maternity leave to appear on Five News and Sky News discussing gurgle’s research.

Combined, the story reached 32,729,325 readers and listeners through print and broadcast outlets.

Online pick up for the story was sensational, with the total audience reach for the news story in excess of 158 million unique users!

Extensive credited coverage online included coverage on news sites and portals such as : BBC News, Telegraph, GMTV, The Independent, The Times, The Sun, The Mirror, Daily Mail, Metro, Scotsman, Daily Record, Guardian Newsblog, The Times Alpha Mummy blog, Reuters, Tiscali, Yahoo, MSN, Virgin Media Lifestyle, Financial Times.

The story even achieved cut through on other parenting sites; Raising Kids, Good To Know, Eparenting, Bounty and Babyworld.

On the gurgle.com site itself, the effect of the news story was felt instantly, with the number of visits to the site increasing five-fold on the day the story was issued.

In summary, gurgle.com’s Death of Traditional Names news story achieved its goals in raising awareness of the site and its functions amongst the mainstream national press, as well as more targeted outlets regionally and online.
The amount of traffic directed towards the site on the day the story hit - more than four times its usual amount of visitors – was further clear testament to its resounding success, with the client wholeheartedly agreeing….

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The client said...

Thanks again for everything - we're all over the moon with the coverage.Sarah Stone, Gurgle.comA big round of applause to you and your team you really outperformed our expectations.Alex Johnson, Gurgle.comI've just seen the volume of press coverage generated by the names story - fantastic - well done to everyone there.Noella Dixon, PR Manager, Mothercare
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