Huggies + Plunket encourage families to make time for hugs in new campaign via Ogilvy NZ

Huggies Nappies has teamed up with Plunket to launch a new TV and social campaign created by Ogilvy New Zealand called ‘Make Time for Hugs’.

Hugs have been part of Huggies Nappies’ DNA since 1978 when Kimberly-Clark employee Boyd Tracy thought to combine the words ‘hugs’ and ‘babies’, and came up with a brand name that decades later would become a household name in New Zealand and around the world.

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The Huggies brand name when invented by Tracy in the late ’70s, was to usher in one of the world’s first disposable nappies with elastic legs, a technological break-through at the time, and also encapsulate the known emotional attachment parents feel for their babies through hugging and holding.    

Says Jason Biggs, marketing manager, Huggies Nappies: “In this campaign we team up with Plunket and give parents a gentle reminder of the deep and lasting benefits of hugs for both baby and parents. We have a shared belief with Plunket in the value for parents of taking time with their babies and holding them close. Hugs are central to our brand, but more importantly they are central to the healthy physical, emotional, behavioural and social development of children.”

The campaign runs across multiple platforms – television, print and on-line advertising, social media and public relations.

In 2017 Plunket and Huggies Nappies enter the 25th year of their sponsorship partnership.  

Says Biggs: “We’re very fortunate to have Plunket in New Zealand as there is no other support service like it anywhere else in the world. For more than a century Plunket, as New Zealand’s largest provider of services to support the health and development of children under five, has been dedicated to working with parents and communities to ensure children in New Zealand get the best start in life. We’re proud that Huggies Nappies have donated over $8 million to Plunket, helping them support parents and their babies at such a crucial stage of life.”

Says Plunket nurse Katrina Coleman who makes her first television appearance in the new Huggies Nappies campaign: “There are about 167 babies born every day in New Zealand and as Plunket Nurses we see most of them hugs are a natural part of bonding and we see hugs taking place in homes all the time. But young parents’ lives are busy so I think the key words in the new campaign are ‘make time’. I am happy to be part of a campaign that reminds parents of newborns to ‘make time for hugs’ because they are so important on so many levels.”   

Plunket says that hugs and loving touch are a vital support for babies’ healthy brain development.  

Says Brigid Wilkinson, national advisor parenting development for Plunket: “Hugs are a powerful way to let babies and children know they are safe and protected. They help them learn they are valued and loved and that someone is there for them. This is a great way to help them adjust and adapt to the world in which they are born.”

The weight of scientific evidence documenting the therapeutic effects of human touch on babies is substantial. The 2015 white paper, The Power of Touch, prepared for the Canadian Association of Paediatric Health Centres (CAPHC) says that over 600 scientific papers have been published on the subject.

Mothers and fathers who are making their screen-debut in the new TVC say the benefits for grown-ups are significant too.

Claudia Aull from Birkenhead speaks fondly of the early stages of motherhood with newborn daughter Harper (age 4 months) who features in the new locally-made Huggies Nappies commercial.  

Says Aull: “When Harper was first born, it was all so new. I was responsible for this perfect little baby, and not always knowing what to do, or what was right, was hard. Especially once my partner Mike was back at work. There are so many opinions out there. So on the really tough days, I’d scoop her up for what I can only describe as a “you-and-me-against-the-world” kind of hug. Then I’d remember how lucky I was, and just get on with it.”

Claudia recalls the moment Harper first hugged her back: “There’s no feeling in the world like it. When her little fingers grabbed onto me for the very first time – it was like nothing else.”

Says Andrew Methven from Greenlane in Auckland who stars with baby Rose (age 4 weeks) in the commercial: “Dads pretty much feel useless in the early stages so we’ve made it my job to settle Rose at night after the last feed. You feel like you’re contributing. I’m not a stressful character but it’s a very calming thing to pick up a baby. I love our hugs together. She’s a funny wee dot. She might be crying hysterically and then it’s like she turns the lights out by herself in my arms and goes to sleep.”

Client: Kimberly-Clark New Zealand

Post-Production: Toybox