Illinois Cares for Kids and the Illinois Governor’s Office came to us with an ambitious ask and a meaningful mission: Create a statewide campaign—in both English and Spanish—to increase early childhood enrollment and use of the variety of resources, funding and support available through Illinois Cares for Kids.

We developed a multi-channel, awareness-driving campaign to build trust among Illinois parents & families in need with emotional, celebratory storytelling, using a :30 animated video as the centerpiece for our campaign. I pushed my team to be authentically Illinois, using local artists and production partners. It was important for us to appeal to adults but also be about children.

Audience participation in the program has been overwhelmingly good. Site traffic doubled in the first month and double again in the second month. And the lowest economic demographic is now enrolled at higher rates than in 3 years.