Busy Bees

A brand with buzz

Brand workshops | Competitive Assessment | Brand Positioning | Brand Design | Illustrations /Graphic Assets

Project overview

Busy bees is a well established and renowned early childcare education group. Started in the UK in the 1980’s, it grew globally through acquiring local key players around the world, spreading their education approach based on discovery and exploration of respectful relationships with children.

In New Zealand, they merged with the former Provincial Education Group, as they recognised the high standards they had regarding tamariki care in this country. From the start, Busy Bees understood the importance of childcare local anchorage and wanted to make sure international ownership and a change in name would not alter the perception of the high quality care these centres were about.

They came to us to help them develop a “kiwi” inspired version of the international brand to bear their great story and leverage Provincial Education equity to New Zealand parents.

Research and Strategy

Diving into the Busy Bees story, values and missions during a fascinating workshop, we understood that at the very core of their approach was the absolute dedication to create a safe and enriching home-from-home environment for tamariki.

Through a competitive assessment and market analysis, we identified their unique ways to deliver on this. Although each centre specificities were supported and encouraged, all of them consistently adopt a practical child-centred approach, where children are encouraged to discover and develop at their own pace within a safe and empowering environment. As learning was at the core of their method – meals, moves and play times were pretexts for intentional teaching of tamariki’s environment.

An incredibly passionate and caring staff was working in their centres across the country, expressing how their connection to the land of Aotearoa was paramount to their future as a childcare group. Their never-ending commitment to the children was combined with their dedication to pass on Te Ao Māori values as the foundation of kiwi’s ability to live together as a united and open society.

Building on these essential pillars, we helped them articulate their differentiation message, which flowed into a refreshed and more relevant branding for New Zealand.

Creative and Brand Design

Our creative team focused straight away on integrating that “kiwi-twist” that Busy Bees were looking for. Firstly, we believed it was key to convey the four values that we highlighted with the team: Manaakitanga (connection between people), Whanaungatanga (family feel based on respect and care), Kotahitanga (collaboration) and Ako (learning experiences).

We worked on Māori patterns and symbols to illustrate Busy Bees commitments. From the Tāniko -Weaving- design to express the community, to the Poutama figure to convey the sense of learning and education, we proposed a series of background treatments. The objective was to introduce subtle hints to bring in Māori references and root the childcare centres in New Zealand.

Conclusion

We delivered a full library of designs, illustrations and graphic assets allowing them to embrace their new “kiwiness” as much or as little as they needed it.

The result is a brand that has a distinct kiwi feel but is backed by the worlds-best ethos and practises in the care of our tamariki. A beautiful combination.