At the outset of the year, we needed to prepare the company for its next chapter, this included redesigning and building their web and digital marketing platforms alongside a rebrand. Not only that, we needed a way to create new content during a time where care homes were closed to the public.

Starting with the content side of things, it became clear in early 2020 that gaining access to care homes was going to prove tricky. Visiting and talking to residents and staff during the pandemic was a sensitive issue, not only for the residents but for the teams of staff too.

In order to capture genuine, quality content, if we couldn’t get into the care homes, we had to enable and empower the company to create its own content. We did this firstly by creating a short 90 minute course on how to create and deploy videos and photographs from within the homes. Teams from each of the company’s seven homes were given expert tuition on the basics of creating video content on Zoom, with filmmakers and social media experts.

During the wonderful weather spell of early 2020 we were able to get to the homes to interview residents and staff about their experiences. At the time, the media was full of bad news and scare stories about what was happening in care homes. By creating videos featuring residents and staff talking about the measures that were in place, the outstanding work of the staff and also the visitation provisions put in place, we were able to create wonderful, compelling videos of the homes showing what was actually going on during the pandemic.

With seven individual brands under one parent name, we needed to create a platform which was class-leading in terms of SEO performance and usability, fast to display and easy to update from a central point. Using the Umbraco open platform, we created one design which was re-used for all of the homes, changing the content for each individual home. We also created a series of service-focused landing pages for the digital marketing PPC campaign. The result was that the company were able to receive enquiries and continue to admit residents even during the toughest of times.

The company had always operated as individual units up until this point. For the next chapter of growth within the UK care sector, the company needed a modern, caring, reliable brand which hinted at luxury but focused on the wellbeing of the residents in each of the homes. The old strapline of Luxury Living & Exceptional Care was replaced simply by Living Well, and the company’s colour of deep purple was replaced by a rich, warm green. Any new homes in the group needed to have a unique look, but we utilised the oval shape from the master brand, to be the foundation of any new logo. The brand will be rolled out throughout late 2021 and 2022 as the company grows.