DfE Childcare Choices
A campaign powered by real parent stories and supported by trusted expert answers on Mumsnet
Brief in brief
Help parents re-evaluate the government support they may be entitled to for childcare and encourage them to apply for funding before the August deadline, with a priority focus on IMD 1–4 parents.
Insight
Parents knew childcare support existed but were unsure what they could claim or how to start.
Opportunity
Mumsnet reaches highly engaged parents who come to ask specific questions about childcare and learn from peers, including roughly 1.9 million monthly users with children aged 0 to 4 years and 2.6 million monthly users with children aged 5-11 years. We close the gap by turning trusted conversations into clear next steps.
Partnership overview
Instead of pushing messages at parents, we turned to the people they trust most: each other. By putting lived experience at the heart of the strategy, we created a campaign that feels rooted in the reality of family life by demystifying the process, showing the impact, and helping more families understand their options.
Partnership elements
An unmissable, site-wide presence that turned attention into action
Site wide banner takeover: A media first for Mumsnet that made the campaign unmissable, reaching parents wherever they were on the site.
Pop-up alerts directed to our Ask the Expert discussion.
Display messaging, creative and targeting were built on our research findings, driving strong engagement across the site with takeovers, Precision contextual targeting and feed ads.
183m impressions delivered across all formats
21k clicks to the Childcare Choices website
1.28% CTR best performing display format (vs. 0.08% KPI)
Our campaign showed the power of bringing a community together, using the voices of real parents to build trust, drive understanding and inspire action
Editorials, community threads and Ask Me Anythings brought parents together. Real voices plus verified guidance built trust, clarified the tricky bits and moved people to act, delivering clear, timely answers to the questions parents were actually asking.
Standout Ask the Expert: 46,708 pageviews, 470 comments, 1 min 20 sec dwell time.
Standout editorial: 25,561 pageviews, 1 min 05 sec average dwell, 4.76% CTR (vs. 1–3% KPI)
Social posts from Justine Roberts CBE and Steph McGovern invited questions and directed parents to answers, influencer reels showed everyday gains from funded childcare, and radio brought real Mumsnetter quotes to air. Scripts were shaped by our research, so every line was credible and rooted in parents’ needs.
Social: 42,000 views, 1,000 interactions
Influencers: 4.07m impressions, 91.5k engagements
