Smile Train

Increasing brand awareness for the global leader in cleft-care

Services

Audience Discovery
Segmentation and Personas
Journey Mapping
Design Principles
Awareness Campaign
Collateral Design

Smile Train is the global leader in cleft care, with a highly effective, sustainable model and a vision for a world where every person has access to high-quality comprehensive cleft care. To further this mission, they wanted to raise brand awareness among key supporters.

Our partnership aimed to benchmark potential reach within the U.S. market through a pilot awareness campaign.

The Challenge
Creating awareness of a misunderstood condition

To the majority of people, clefts are considered merely an aesthetic concern. However, without timely treatment, clefts can cause malnutrition, chronic infections, difficulty breathing and speaking, and even fatality.

To reach ambitious growth objectives, Smile Train needed to reach beyond legacy supporters and reposition cleft care as a necessary and life-saving treatment.

Campaign Strategy
Segmentation, on-ramps, and connective tactics

Our Discovery research identified three target audience segments, based on relevance and accessibility. We then mapped an audience journey that focused on breakthrough, engagement, and establishing trust.

Each touchpoint earned attention by correlating known audience interests — mental health, bullying, local empowerment, nutrition, etc — with Smile Train’s comprehensive programming. In this way we gathered a larger pool of attention and communicated a powerful brand story.

The Creative Platform
Reshape their future

Clear copywriting, dynamic visuals, and a hopeful tagline brought new energy to the brand. Paired with their remarkable portraiture, the campaign connected to supporters across social, digital video, and digital radio.