Sweet Dreams Baby Kit — Kaitlin Bernard

Sweet Dreams Baby Kit Case Study

Following the launch of the SmartCamera in 2020, ecobee received feedback that customers were using the camera as a baby monitor. ecobee engineers, researchers, and UX team members worked with new and existing features to eventually offer continuous audio monitoring, two-way talk, and remote connectivity with no limits. The camera was then bundled with ecobee’s award-winning SmartThermostat with voice control to create the Sweet Dreams Baby Kit, the ultimate way to keep baby safe and comfortable. With product and features ready, the challenge became how to work within the existing brand and connect with an in-demand target to market a product that requires a high degree of trust.

Our Responsibilities: Paired as a Copywriter, Kaitlin Bernard and Art Director, Lisa Stuve, we provided creative direction on the following:

* Creative strategy and concept * Concept sell through and stakeholder review * Cross-team collaboration* Strategic budget management * Process refinement * Vendor selection and direction including Illustrator, Animator, Motion Designer, Sound Designer, Image Retoucher, Printing House, PR Partnerships, and Content Creators.

The Audience Insight: We immersed ourselves in the brief, conducted interviews with the customer target, scoured the competitive landscape, and mined our own personal experience for inspiration. Through this, we homed in on the insight that new parents are overwhelmed by choice and overloaded with information. We suggested that to combat these negative feelings, soon-to-be parents often find themselves in a daydream-like state of planning. This includes selecting names from lists, getting inspired by nursery décor, watching must-have product roundup videos, and curating beloved parts of their own childhoods that they want to pass on. In other words, letting their imaginations run wild with what is possible. We reasoned that we needed creative that met soon-to-be parents in this mindset. We needed to inspire them with imaginative creative and speak to the parent they would hope to one day be. Also, contending with low brand awareness in a high-trust category, we knew we would have to pair this inspiring creative with content that convinced customers that Sweet Dreams Baby Kit was the right choice for them.

The Creative Solution: With a new feature launch and repositioning, it became important to work cross-functionally in collaboration with our counterparts in UX, Product, Web, Research, and Marketing. We lead journey mapping and brand-focused strategy sessions to ensure we brought the functionality to life in an approachable way.

By using insight, we developed creative designed to capture the imagination and tap into the wondrous state of mind of soon-to-be parents. We leveraged existing still life product photography, created day/night iterations, and added imaginative illustrations featuring sleeping animals, unicorns, trees, stars, and more. With the copy, we differentiated ourselves in the category by pairing “More than a baby monitor” statements with a second statement that intertwined imagination and actual functionally of the product (e.g. “It’s a night owl” is a reference to HD video that works in the dark).

We also proposed content creators to create assets for the campaign, including lifestyle imagery, in-app video, and quotes. This lent authenticity to the campaign in order to build trust with the customers who are seeking advice in their important baby-related purchases. Overall, this approach was not only cost-saving, visually striking, and on-brand, but it allowed us to create content during COVID-related lockdowns.

The Results: Since the start of this campaign, 27% of cameras registered have been set up in the baby monitor mode. This campaign has included digital, social, influencer, and base marketing as well as PR. The launch has received significant press coverage in publications such as Today’s Parent, Fatherly, Motherly, The Verge, and more.

All tactics have performed above benchmark and have made our baby monitoring product pages the most viewed pages on ecobee.com (with the exclusion of homepage) since the start of the campaign. Due to the success of this creative, it was converted from a campaign with a set end date to become an always-on campaign within paid digital channels.

Why it Worked:
• In a sea of sameness, we amplified the traits that are unique to our product and brand.

• Connected to our brand purpose with story of imagination and constant innovation.

• Every single execution told a story connected to a product feature or benefit.

• A flexible yet consistent system that worked across all creative touch points, ratios, and specs.

• Knew the target and produced insight-driven creative + product and feature-driven executions to create new target-specific sub-brand and that connects with customer needs.

• Authenticity of telling real people’s stories through content creator partnerships and real life in-app video clips in social videos.

The Creative Collaborators:
Sarah Beth Morgan- Illustration
Tyler Morgan- Animation
Quewin Warnasuriya & Aaron Gaistman - Toronto Sound
Sean Kung- Motion Design
Stephen MacLeod- Retouching