Solving the growing pains of a global swim school franchise brand

“Their deep knowledge of the business brought to life our brand strategy.”

The challenge

Water Babies didn't just enter a category. They built one. And the brand The Other Person created alongside them in the early 2000s was built for exactly that job: raising awareness of a new concept, making it feel safe and joyful, and appealing to baby and parent in equal measure.

Central to that identity was a suite of illustrated characters, Bubba, Digi and Octo, originally developed as teaching aids to support swimming techniques in the pool, giving visual cues to parents, carers and babies as part of an integrated teaching and learning system. Those characters proved so resonant they spread far beyond the poolside: onto clothing, toys, products and printed materials, becoming genuinely iconic within the Water Babies world.

It worked. For years, it worked brilliantly. But the market matured, and so did the audience. A new generation of parents, more considered in how they spend, more discerning about who they trust with their children, had arrived. They were making decisions about premium childcare with a different set of expectations, and the main brand identity was still oriented around the baby rather than the person making the decision.

The characters hadn't lost their appeal. But they needed a different home.

The thinking

We've worked on the Water Babies brand since its inception in 2002. That accumulated knowledge of the business, its global franchise network, its premium positioning, its teaching philosophy, shaped every decision in the refresh.

The key call was straightforward, even if it needed care: the illustrated characters weren't going away. On products like happy nappies, toys and clothing, and throughout the Water Babies shop, they remain as beloved and effective as ever. That's exactly where they belong. What changed was their role in the main brand identity.

The refresh stepped the characters back from the primary visual language and redirected the main identity squarely at Millennial parents. Bold messaging. Layered visuals: the layering itself a direct reference to the stages of development every child moves through: physical, intellectual, emotional. Imagery that connects the expertise of the teacher, the experience of the child, and the confidence of the parent who chose it.

Stripped back. Purposeful. Built for a global network that needs to apply the identity consistently across markets and cultures, while still carrying the warmth and recognition that twenty years of brand-building had earned.

The result

The refreshed identity gave Water Babies a main brand that finally matched its market position: the world leader in baby swimming, while preserving everything that had made it trusted in the first place.

The illustrated characters continue to do what they do best: connecting with children and parents through products and the Water Babies shop, where their appeal remains as strong as ever. The main identity now speaks with equal confidence to the parents choosing it.

Rolled out across the global franchise network, the new platform gave franchisees a stronger, more consistent and more commercially credible way to communicate with their local markets. A brand that helped build a category, updated to lead it.