Care for Kids, a market-leading Australian early learning & childcare comparison website, needed its brand image reconsidered, redefined, and redesigned. A new positioning strategy and narrative were essential to set Care for Kids' new trajectory and reassert it as the dominant market leader, cementing its position as the #1 childcare search in the country.
Our irrefutable insight came from the fact Care for Kids doesn't care for kids – they care for parents, looking to compare childcare options. We knew that it was imperative for current and prospective parents to feel at ease and safe, knowing that the answers they needed were available on the Care for Kids platform. To encapsulate this offering to parents, we created the tagline' Childcare, Taken Care of.' clearly articulating their offering.
The Care for Kids brand lacked personality and felt undifferentiated with outdated logotypes featuring childish butterfly motives and an unclear tone of voice. We needed to rebrand top-to-bottom across all major touch-points to consolidate its authority in the childcare search space and dial up its professionalism to hone a distinctive corporate identity while remaining friendly to parents seeking care and childcare providers advertising on the platform and seeking exposure.
After we completed a competitive analysis across the sector, our strategy was to cement Care for Kids in a category of its own - not as a childcare brand but elevating it to a search brand, so it could compete beyond category level and solidify itself as the number one search platform for childcare comparison.
As an agency built on behavioural science insights, we heavily leaned into Authority Bias - which describes our tendency to attribute greater knowledge and influence to perceived authority figures. We knew if we leveraged Authority Bias, we could influence prospects and nudge consumers from consideration into action.
With our strategy and brand direction set, we developed a range of big, bold ideas to challenge people's perceptions of the broader category. To grow brand awareness and increase search and site traffic, we gave Care for Kids a fresh brand identity with a balance of friendliness and fun, infused with a sense of authority that would permeate the brand.
Care for Kids' brand codes reflected this mandate. The logotype, which isolated the "C" to reinforce a core part of its offering as a search engine for childcare. The logo itself is housed inside what appears to be a search bar, emphasising its search functionality.
The “C” logo was also used as the brandmark, doubling as a graphic device to illustrate the stories of what Care for Kids does.
For the brand guidelines, we developed a playful palette of new colours, a suite of informative icons and graphic shapes, a fresh photographic style, and a light yet intelligent tone of voice. These elements were applied to a new website and an OOH campaign, which lent into the brand's unique sense of authority, the headline reiterating that Care for Kids was The #1 childcare search in Australia.
This positioning lent itself to a radio spot and an entertaining 30- second TVC that featured an engaging cast of young 'childcare search experts' helping parents to find the right childcare centre from their high-tech search headquarters.
Our campaign enhanced Care for Kids' brand image positively, lifting the perception of trustworthiness and easy-to-use access to parents and childcare providers alike. As a result, the TVC saw brand awareness double, with 63% of parent viewers saying they'd consider Care for Kids. On top of that, the spot far exceeded the norms of likeability, memorability and entertainment factors and exceeded campaign objectives.
2x lift in brand awareness
10% increase in search of enquiries
26% increase in prompted awareness exceeding objective
