About the MA CCR & R Network
The Massachusetts Child Care Resource and Referral Network is a group of six agencies (CCR & R’s), each serving a different geographical segment of Massachusetts. The CC & Rs are full-service childcare resource and referral programs dedicated to helping families find quality childcare. They work with parents, schools, daycare facilities, and local agencies. The agency assists families in finding the best childcare and early childhood education options for them. In addition, they find ways for parents to pay for childcare services including childcare financial assistance. This program provides financial assistance to eligible families seeking care at early education and care or out-of-school time programs.
Situation Overview
The Network received a financial grant in Q3 -Q4 2023, to use towards the marketing of the agencies, with a focus on general awareness of the CCR &R’s as well as the resources available for childcare financial assistance.
Davis Advertising interviewed the stakeholders of each of the six agencies, to learn more about their service offerings, goals as individual agencies as well as the larger network, and the priority of the messaging (awareness vs. financial assistance). We also identified the different opportunities, based on the geography and demographics of each area.
Strategies
We then developed a multi-tiered media strategy which generated awareness on a statewide level with tactics such as Broadcast TV, radio, digital billboards, and transit signage. As well as a more direct approach with digital tactics targeted towards parents and caregivers in the identified geographical areas.
To support the media strategy, we created two campaigns 1. Awareness of the agency offerings 2. The availability of financial assistance to eligible families.
The creative selected for Awareness featured the headline “Childcare that works for all of you.”, which showed the importance of childcare options that meet the needs of both the parents/caregivers, as well as the children.
The theme for financial assistance was centered around the headline “Financial assistance for childcare is hiding in plain sight.” We used this to show families that there were financial options for them that they may not have been aware of.
Results
WCVB Story Study – Over 3 million impressions, 9,500 engagements, and average time spent on the story 2 minutes.
Search – The search campaign across all agencies exceeded benchmarks consistently each month, with a total of 200k plus impressions, 1,025 phone calls and over 18k visits to the landing pages.
The clients confirmed the increase in both families applying for the financial assistance vouchers as well as contacting the agencies regarding general resource and referral information.