KENT COUNTY COUNCIL

How can a brand help change a child's future?

Kent County Council Fostering and Adoption Services build brighter futures by laying solid foundations where vulnerable children can grow and feel at home.

THE CHALLENGE

It’s a vitally important part of the council’s remit. But it’s also a difficult, sensitive and increasingly competitive area in which to work.

Faced with a potential shortage of fosterers and adopters, the council asked us to help better engage their target audiences. Specifically, we needed to create a visible and inspiring face for these services, confirming them as a destination of choice for those looking to create and build families.

How do you give a brand identity to an emotive and life-changing initiative?

OUR APPROACH

We began by moderating focus groups with foster and adoptive parents from across the county. Following this, we held a creative workshop with the council’s project team. This allowed us to define and articulate their mission and values, which would underpin behaviours and drive decisions.

From this platform, we began to develop the brand’s personality and tone of voice. By putting a framework in place we were able to communicate their offer with conviction and consistency. We could now build a brief which would inspire our campaign and a strategy that would engage prospective fosterers and adopters.

A simple and clear message emerged – the work was fundamentally about ‘changing futures’. This proposition reflected everything that Kent County Council Fostering and Adoption Services aspired to, and it embodied both their short-term and long-term goals.

We then developed a striking and imaginative visual brand. While this complements the existing Kent County Council brand, it gives Fostering and Adoption Services a distinctive and engaging personality that was more appropriate for the work they were undertaking.

To give it an authentic visual language, we used bespoke photography and embellished it with illustrations. This represents the positive impact of fostering and adoption, both for the child and for those that find a loving home for them.

THE RESULT

When I began to understand some of the challenges that Fostering and Adoption Services faced, I certainly didn’t think that a year down the line we’d have a set of brand assets that would not only allow us to compete in a difficult market, but which also had the approval of all parties involved. You were presented with a tricky set of circumstances but the outcome really is brilliant.

- SUZANNA GAMWELL / Communications Account Manager, Strategic and Corporate Services, Kent County Council

The impact of creating a brand and developing a targeted recruitment campaign and associated collateral is plain to see. In the year following its launch, fostering enquiries increased by an exceptional 33% and as a result foster carer approvals increased by 15%. Similarly, adoption enquiries increased by 22% and adoption approvals increased by a huge 30%.

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How can a brand help change a child's future?

It’s a vitally important part of the council’s remit. But it’s also a difficult, sensitive and increasingly competitive area in which to work.

We began by moderating focus groups with foster and adoptive parents from across the county. Following this, we held a creative workshop with the council’s project team. This allowed us to define and articulate their mission and values, which would underpin behaviours and drive decisions.

A simple and clear message emerged – the work was fundamentally about ‘changing futures’. This proposition reflected everything that Kent County Council Fostering and Adoption Services aspired to, and it embodied both their short-term and long-term goals.

Gillespie Macandrew

Santander Group

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