Sensible

Client: My Sensible Baby – a smart monitoring device that was created to help prevent SIDS during the first 6 months to a year of the infants’ life.

Background: It was spring 2014, a year before the dad-vertising onslaught that was the Super Bowl XLIX. Our team was tasked with creating a digital campaign for a smart baby monitor. It was a promising product, utilizing technology to deliver an experience which helped parents maintain their sanity during the crazy first 6 months of having a baby.

Issues: We believed there were a couple minor things holding this product back from success.

– First, they only had a product with no brand. There was an opportunity to create a strong brand that could extend outside of the first 6 months of childhood that the product is relevant.

– Second, the packaging and app interface looked like a medical device. It made parents more nervous.

– Third, the name. My Sensible Baby was confusing. It needed a little tweaking even though the client loved it.

Target: First Time Dads.
This was the lynchpin of our blue ocean strategy. Why you may ask? What about moms? Aren’t they the ones usually buying? Well, we forecasted times were about to change. Millennials are now becoming first time parents and we found that the soccer mom is transforming into the skateboard dad. And in a category that launches new products every nine months, everybody was still talking to moms. We wanted to stand out in the sea of baby products.

Strategy: The “Fourth Trimester”
After speaking with all the father’s we know, we stumbled upon the “Fourth Trimester” blues. The first few months of infants’ life are known as the “Fourth Trimester,” because Moms share a special biological connection with the newborn. The newborn misses the familiarity of the womb and enjoys the comfort a mother brings. Meanwhile, Moms are experiencing a radical range of changes in both their bodies and minds that only mothers fully understand. This makes for an uneasy period for fathers who aren’t sure of their role yet. This was also the period where our product lived.

Again and again dads spoke of the guilt they felt during this time. They desperately wanted to feel useful, but didn’t know exactly how and were worried about everything that could possibly go wrong. What if Sensible could calm his fears and make him the hero he so desperately wants to be?
We needed to Celebrate Dads as the Hero of the Fourth Trimester.

Implementation: We began our journey by chopping off the unnecessary words from the name. The product became Sensible and our strategy led the creative team to the concept, Dad Conquers Irrational Fears.

Our creative team knocked it out of the park, created an 8 bit video game, redid the packaging, streamlined the interface with a calming facelift, and executed some great radio and TV spots. From a business standpoint there was a great chance to make this thing bigger by creating a brand for all things dad. We decided on calling it Dad Labs.

Since we first came into parents’ lives as their child was born, if we did well, we could create line extensions for products later in their childs‘ life. This would extend the customer lifetime value of our audience. And the CEO of the company, our leader figure just happened to be a first time dad.

Brainstarter:
Brand – Dad Labs Product – Sensible
Caveman Dad had to worry about saber tooth tigers eating his baby.
Now, saber tooth tigers are gone.

SIDS is dads’ current saber tooth tiger. Lets get rid of SIDS.