• by Larissa Faw , May 5, 2016

Agencies are putting their skills to work to salute moms as Mother's Day approaches. StrawberryFrog is using the holiday to spark a conversation about the challenges faced by working mothers. 

Meantime, Mother New York has a fun project in the works for Mother's Day and all employees have the Monday after the holiday off.

As part of its initiative centered at Frogmoms.com, the StrawberryFrog is releasing a two-minute video themed around the idea "mom is not a bad word" that features interviews with working moms at StrawberryFrog.

In addition to the video, there is a blog, articles and two "Uprising" podcasts, all of which can be accessed via the Frogmoms microsite. 

The podcast episodes feature StrawberryFrog founder Scott Goodson interviewing Nancy Hill, head of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As), and Lisen Stromberg, consultant with the 3% conference, on the challenges women and moms face in advertising, marketing, media and technology industries and how to overcome these obstacles.

The intent behind this movement is to enact real change within the advertising industry.

“Having a workplace where mothers thrive is good for business. It's good for our company, for our culture," says Goodson. "It's good for our clients. But to attract moms, you can't rely on the systems or structures of the past. You need to have an office that is more humane, where talent - including mothers - feel great about themselves.

"It means flexible work, distance cooperation and not judging someone because she or he wants to be at their daughter’s baseball game. This kind of office is sharper and more productive."

Separately, each year, Mother New York develops a fun project for Mother's Day and all employees have the Monday after the holiday off, but this year's celebration is its biggest yet, says the agency. 

The #LoveMother initiative includes both offline and online components that offer words of wisdom, love, and snark to honor the people that have stood behind them and supported them, says the agency. 

The campaign includes physical images that "encourage the kind of behavior our moms would appreciate" via billboards, wild posting, dog poop signs, trash signs, no smoking signs, and wash your hands signs.

On social media, the campaign is using the #lovemother hashtag "as a thank you for sharing their wisdom with us," says Martin Baker, creative strategist, Mother NY. "We designed a personalized quote for each of them that was a saying from their own mother. We're really excited to roll out that aspect of the campaign."

This project is meant for its employees as well as mothers.

"From the outset, we really wanted to do this for everyone here at Mother," says Baker. "The billboard is a prime example. It actually faces against traffic and is really only for pedestrians, so if you ever want to target Mother employees, buy that billboard. It's a nice reminder of why we're proud to work at a place like this. 

"That said, it is Mother's Day. So if the campaign can also work to remind people to get a gift or even make a phone call. We'd feel pretty good about that too."