‘Be A Star’, the groundbreaking breastfeeding campaign from Manchester-based behaviour change consultancy The Hub, has been nominated for the prestigious Federal Republic of Germany Design Award.

The award is renowned as the ‘prize of all prizes’ because of its strict entry criteria, whereby designs can only be nominated if they have already been awarded a national or international design prize. ‘Be A Star’ gained entry after scooping gold at last year’s DBA Awards. Entries must also be nominated by a Minister for Trade and Industry or Senators of the German states. 

“This is excellent news,” said Steven Johnson, Creative Director at The Hub,
“for our agency, our team and for the communities that have helped this programme achieve such outstanding results. Breastfeeding initiation is a key element in national efforts to reduce
both health inequalities and NHS costs, and because this programme is aimed specifically at young mothers from disadvantaged communities, it is making
a real difference on both counts.”

Launched in 2008 and now being rolled
out across the UK, ‘Be A Star’ is a behaviour change programme designed
to shift norms around breastfeeding within deprived and disadvantaged communities. Putting the community at the heart of the intervention, the programme uses social marketing and peer mobilisation techniques to empower and enable
young mothers to breastfeed in the
face of adverse social norms.

Taking a holistic approach, the programme incorporates community and stakeholder engagement, co-creation, service design and a through-the-line communications campaign to drive
peer influence. Establishing partnerships between public sector organisations, private companies, third sector organisations and grass roots community groups, the campaign achieved an unprecedented 13% increase in breastfeeding initiation over the first six months, against a target of 2%. The peer-support service was extended to 27,000 young mothers, and national and regional targets were exceeded four times over.

These achievements have already been recognised with a DBA Effectiveness ‘Gold’ award, a How-Do effectiveness award and inclusion in the National Social Marketing Centre’s ShowCase case study database,

The award nomination will see The Hub join an esteemed list of names from the design world, with one of last year’s top prizes going to Audi for their A5 Coupé. 

The winners will be announced in September 2010, with the awards ceremony taking place in February 2010.