Bringing a Brand Essence to Life

The Challenge

Unpacking a core strategic phrase for a leading toy company to understand its true meaning for modern families, and its role in future brand and communications strategy.

Our client developed a phrase to encapsulate the heart of their brand experience. However, they lacked an understanding of how it resonated with families or what the everyday truths of each word were. They called on us to perform deep discourse analysis to illuminate the strategic potential of this language, evaluate current delivery, and identify where the brand could dial up its impact for long-term growth.

The Approach

Across 4 markets (UK, US, DE & JP), we kicked off with deep-dive expert interviews followed by a three-day digital ethnography where families used photos and videos to document those raw, everyday truth moments in action. This was also a full family event, and we tasked our parents with interviewing their in-home play experts (aka their children!). Then to round out the journey, we conducted 1.5-hour interviews to unpack the deep emotional connections and a-ha moments that surfaced during their diaries.

The Impact

We brought this phrase to life by illuminating the raw emotions and barriers that define the family experience, helping the brand understand exactly how to live by these values internally. We provided a clear strategic view on how the brand and experience currently aligns with these truths and the specific guardrails needed to eventually transition the phrase into a consumer-facing promise.