Every two minutes a woman dies from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. Merck for Mothers was created as a revolutionary initiative to maternal mortality globally. When the group needed a partner to elevate and celebrate them as a leader in maternal health by illustrating the crucial role of the private sector in solving public health issues — they turned to Matter Unlimited. That was five years ago. Today the partnership is still going strong, as we continue to deliver innovative communications ideas. From Virtual Reality to immersive digital content, explore our breakthrough and inventive storytelling platform “All For Mothers” and how it has catalyzed action and awareness in the fight to end maternal mortality globally.
Challenge
We needed to elevate and amplify a 10-year, $500 million Merck initiative to end maternal mortality globally.
Impact Strategy
Impact Narrative Strategy
Leadership and Storytelling workshops
Digital Content Strategy
UX
Impact Storytelling
Virtual Reality
Film
Animation
Photography
Digital content
Website Design
Social Assets
Women are not dying because of diseases we cannot treat… They are dying because societies have yet to make the decision that their lives are worth saving.
Overview
For 10 years Merck for Mothers has been on a mission to change this and eradicate maternal mortality globally.
We began our work together in 2016 with the goal of inspiring new audiences to join them in the fight and still remain relevant among policy-makers and NGOs. What followed was a multi-year partnership that re-invented the way they presented their mission and work, elevated the issue in culture and invited a new coalition in.
We created All for Mothers, a platform to signify the universal motivation and collaborative approach of the initiative and began to revolutionize the voice and communications of the initiative. New and innovative storytelling formats invited new partners in to help ensure that every woman could feel joy bringing new life into the world, not fear for her own.
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PUSH
As part of the new platform, we created an anthemic film, PUSH, to drive home the ambition of the initiative. Within days of launching this film became the most viewed video on Merck’s history garnering over 4 million views across channels.
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Inside Impact Virtual Reality Film
All For Mothers
A VR film brought audiences on a journey to Uganda to experience first hand the impact midwives were having in small communities. The experience launched at Davos in 2017, changing the way cause-related challenges could be presented to philanthropic audiences, as a new memorable experience for policy makers and maternal health advocates.
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REVERSE
In 2019, we turned our attention to the US where a woman in 1990 had a better chance of surviving childbirth than her own daughter does today. A new film REVERSE cast a powerful and necessary spotlight on the issue and a digital report did a deep dive on “The Mom Effect”.
Annual Reports
The traditional annual report was replaced with multiple, episodic digital reports that combined both data and storytelling into a dynamic, interactive interface. The content we create is inherently sharable and broadly relevant, inviting new and unexpected audiences and feeding their communication ecosystem to create more consistency and relevancy throughout the year.
The issue of maternal mortality has reached unprecedented levels of public consciousness, and today Merck for Mothers has over 170 partners globally.
collaboration
Changing the World?
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