Australian Birth Stories’ engaging Instagram activity led to a successful launch of the podcast and subscriptions saw solid growth in the market, rapidly reaching number 1 in the Kids and Family category on Apple Podcasts and making strong and steady gains in market reach. To date, the podcast has achieved 5 million downloads.

The visual language of the brand articulates the spectrum of experiences offered in the Podcast — from soft, tender and nurturing to raw, emotional and challenging — the intentional contrast in tone nurtures new understandings and knowledges to support diverse birth experiences.

After a successful few years and almost two hundred podcasts, this year Public Journal worked with Sophie to mature her brand narrative through a number of product articulations.

The first and most important brand activity was to work with Sophie to write script for her now influential podcast series and clearly convey her respect and acknowledgement of First Nations peoples and Indigenous sovereign birth practices.

Navigating the very personal experience of childbirth can be daunting for a potential mother; inherent bias and social stigma in the health space can be the ugly flip side of progressive birth choices and inclusive health practice.

The diversity of human responses to birth practice have found a welcome place in this ground-breaking brand; carefully revealing the natural, real, bloody, beautiful, painful, resilient and sometimes devastating aspects of birth and motherhood through the lens of a diverse cross section of people and peoples.

Public Journal developed a suite of illustrations, rendered with sympathy to the curves and colourway of the existing brand elements.

 These were applied to a range of support materials for The Birth Class, Discovering Motherhood and Australian Birth Stories products, supporting and promoting the learning journey for potential and existing parents.

Artwork is intentionally soft, relaxed and expressive — acting as a nurturing entry point for new Mums who are trying to navigate the sometimes daunting new world of birth knowledge and are looking to feel supported. 

This thoughtfully written set of materials enables new Mums to find ways to embrace their story, however it unfolds.

To neatly package the new offerings within the core brand, Public Journal developed an animated sequence of the brand’s well known logo, with a playful nod to the audio series.