Laura Bowen
The Challenge
In 2022, the San Francisco Department of Early Childhood became the first public early childhood agency of its kind, with a new mandate–create a centralized, effective, and equitable early childhood system. Their goal? Partner with all of the adults who care for young children to integrate services for early care and education, healthy development, and family supports.
When a new, publicly funded organization is created, branding and communications are especially important. Residents, especially families with young children, needed to understand DEC’s mission and services through a strong brand point of view and a decisive, clear, multimedia launch.
How can we quickly raise public awareness?
The Approach
VIVA approached raising public awareness for our partner through a multimedia advertising campaign. The goal of the campaign was to create awareness among all residents of San Francisco that DEC was the city's newest agency supporting its youngest residents.
Creating the Brand
Generating public awareness of the new city agency started with creating an engaging, joyful, and colorful brand identity and building the agency's foundational communications platforms. Prior to the campaign launch, VIVA worked with DEC to establish its brand foundation, developing:
- The DEC logo and brand identity. The tangram-inspired logo represents the many pieces of early childhood that fit together to form the whole system, and the overall brand is colorful and joyful. The development process included input from DEC staff and parent stakeholders.
- A new website that serves as a central hub for all of the most important information about the new agency and its initiatives.
Public Awareness Campaign
Our partner's goal was to make a big splash with their launch. Building on the new brand, VIVA developed a multimedia, multilingual campaign designed to create brand awareness and recognition, as well as encourage residents to visit the website to learn more about DEC. Strategies included:
- Out-of-home ad placements, targeting neighborhoods in San Francisco where families with young children live, as well as high visibility transit locations.
- Digital ad campaigns, with goals of creating brand recognition, growing followers, and directing traffic to the website.
- Public outreach, including press releases and tools for key partners to share messages and information about DEC to constituents.
DEC has a lot to be proud of. In the first 6 months, DEC social media garnered over 1.1 million impressions in San Francisco. We’ve built a strong foundation to continuing to communicate as their services and impact grows.
Examples of Out of Home Placements
Examples of Digital Ads
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Read everything that came out about the San Francisco Department of Early Childhood:
- https://sf.gov/news/san-francisco-launches-new-department-early-childhood-0
- https://www.kqed.org/news/11929082/wondering-how-to-find-affordable-child-care-or-preschool-in-san-francisco-here-are-some-resources
- https://sfmayor.org/article/mayor-breed-announces-landmark-pay-raise-initiative-early-educators-city-funded-programs
- https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/the-city/how-parents-find-affordable-infant-care-in-san-francisco/article_c6116136-5c7c-11ed-8971-5b405583f616.html
- https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2023-01-29/san-francisco-tax-baby-prop-c-child-care-crisis
- https://www.kqed.org/news/11935433/all-work-and-low-pay-the-struggle-of-californias-in-home-child-care-providers
- https://sfstandard.com/community/san-francisco-child-care-expensive-early-childhood-families/