Dentsu launches ‘for moms by moms’ marketing network Mamalab
Dentsu has launched a specialist network within its Asia Pacific business in which marketers that are mums will offer services to brands that are targeting the sought-after audience of mothers.
Dentsu's Mamalabs team in the Philippines
MamaLab will become a full-service marketing network, first launching in Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Philippines and Taiwan. China, India and Thailand will soon follow.
According to chairmom and chief creative officer Merlee Jayme, the launch came from a need to take action against stereotyping that she and her colleagues had identified both as mums and as marketers.
Speaking at the launch event, Jayme said: “There is a stereotyping and it has to stop. We are all different and we all make mistakes, we are not perfect. We are different in the way we live and how we choose for families. This is also about recognising how important we are as a target market.”
Alongside the client-facing commitment to mums, MamaLab will also create a working environment that is friendly to the mums that work there, giving better maternity deals to staff and allowing people to bring their children into work.
While the mum’s purse has been sought after for some time, the imperative to launch this now is the difference in needs for mums generationally and how that’s shifting rapidly. Dentsu says millennial mums are very different to those before and offering strategic advice to brand on creative, as well as using data to find the right insights, is even more important.
Speaking at the launch event, Jayme gave an anecdote about a detergent brand launching a campaign in the Philippines, which decided to go down the traditional route about making clothes white, saving mum’s time in the process. The campaign flopped and, after speaking to mums, it transpired that mums liked taking time because it felt like an act of showing love to the family, a very unique insight to mums in the Philippines.
The network will use Dentu’s brand health intelligence platform SenseAsia to power its strategic planning.
Takaki Hibino, CEO of Dentsu Brand Agencies APAC, said: “This is a bold and exciting move. MamaLab puts into action our commitment to meaningfully engage specific communities, especially in Asia-Pacific where rising household consumption continues to grow. Modern mothers are a powerful market and play an important role in the global economy. MamaLab’s unique marketing solutions model is an innovative business solution consistent with our efforts to build an inclusive digital economy for all.”