Week of Childcare 2025
Childcare professionals shape the development of children every single day. Yet their pedagogical expertise often goes unnoticed, with public perception still reducing their role to "looking after children."
For the Week of Childcare 2025, Leerstoel Kinderopvang from UGent challenged us to change that narrative. Our mission was twofold: celebrate the profession in an empowering way while raising awareness for the challenges facing the childcare sector.
Rather than saying "thank you" once again, we wanted people to experience just how demanding the job really is.
Together with House of Media, we created Crèche Test Dummy: a social-first campaign in which six well-known Belgian personalities (Joris Hessels, Nora Gharib, Dina Tersago, Boris Van Severen, An Lemmens and Thomas Vanderveken) took on playful challenges inspired by situations childcare professionals face every day.
The challenges weren't meant to perfectly recreate the job. They were designed as entertaining conversation starters that revealed the multitasking, observation skills, communication and flexibility childcare professionals constantly rely on.
Every challenge ended with the same takeaway: what looks easy is anything but.
Social-first storytelling
Throughout the Week of Childcare, the Leertoel Kinderopvang UGent published a new challenge every day on Instagram. The participating celebrities amplified the content by sharing it with their own communities, significantly extending the campaign's reach and engagement.
By combining humour with recognition, the series encouraged audiences to look at childcare professionals through a different lens: not as babysitters, but as skilled pedagogical experts.
PR that added perspective
The social campaign was supported by a strategic PR approach that shifted the conversation from entertainment to impact.
Our media story highlighted the crucial pedagogical role of childcare professionals, the structural challenges facing the sector and the importance of scientific research in improving its future.
The Leerstoel Kinderopvang UGent served as the campaign's expert voice, providing context and evidence-based insights. At the same time, participating celebrities shared their experiences with the challenges, while childcare professionals themselves spoke about the realities of their work.
This combination of expert opinions, authentic testimonials and recognizable ambassadors gave journalists multiple angles to cover the story. Careful, personal media outreach helped secure coverage across print, radio and television with a total media reach of 4,112,153.