Headspace

Brand Extension | Advocacy | Graphic Design | Brand | Campaign | Informational | Social Media | Print | Guerrilla Marketing

"Headspace for Kids"

OBJECTIVE:

Think beyond the "expected" way of positioning a product, create unexpected advertising by targeting a product or service at a different audience. Choose a product that is typically sold to one gender/age group and develop the strategy and creative to sell it to the opposite.

TARGET AUDIENCE:

Children - all genders, ages 8-12 years old

Spring 2021

Art Director •
Lilian Broyles

Copywriter •
Caleb Sperling

Project Overview

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Innovative advertisers must practice applying creative ways to step outside of the status-quo by repositioning the brand so it reaches beyond the pre-existing target audience. The best brands reach farther past the line of expectation, they utilize original strategic thinking to develop the brand image to become not just a product or service but a lifestyle full of values.

For this project, my partner and I agreed Headspace has yet to venture into an untapped market, Children. This isn’t to say we are stooping ourselves to scoundrel-like consumption practices that prey on uninformed children, rather we actively wanted to do the opposite.

We believe children are smarter than people normally think and are quite perceptive. This causes them to be more vulnerable and impressionable. It cannot be denied that children have mental health issues for one reason or another, as much as adults want to deny this fact.

Headspace is an app that promotes easily accessible mindful meditation through their guided meditations, online content, and other provided resources. It is there to help you relieve the stresses of everyday life, tackling problems such as anxiety, sleeplessness, and relationships.

The goal of the meditative practice is to not only dissolve your bad thoughts or feelings, but also acknowledge and comprehend them before ultimately letting them go.

The Headspace brand at the time of the project has produced little content for the younger demographic.

As such, we saw the opportunity to provide a service that provides some semblance of help for this oversight issue on children’s mental health. We wanted to extend the Headspace brand for the children’s demographic, focusing on issues they often face: sexuality/gender, bullying, body positivity, disabilities, parental discomfort, negligence, racism, classism, etc.

Children don’t always understand why something happening to them makes them feel a certain way (sometimes neither the adults around them). Headspace cannot in any way replace a real professional counselor and psychologist, but perhaps it can be an outlet for them to ease the burden or better understand the situation so they can vocalize it to an adult.

With our world’s constantly progressing society, children are more in tune with societal situations, their identities, or the state of their mental health.

Unfortunately, that means these kids may suffer from anxiety, depression, or hopelessness due to the overwhelming activity going on around them. For example, a 10 year old might not understand the derisiveness of having two moms.

Headspace for Kids would appropriately provide children with accessible resources for mental health issues in an approachable, stress-free manner.

We want parents to trust Headspace with their kids. Grappling with the complexities of the world is a challenge, but keeping the messages fun and transparent is appreciated by families in this tumultuous time.

This project features a Headspace for Kids specific app icon and other marketing strategies. The campaign shows off social media promotions, school posters, guerrilla-ambient designs, and a sponsored live event.