Webb deVlam has worked with personal care firm Kimberly-Clark on a new range of swim-time accessories to be stocked alongside the Huggies Little Swimmers brand in supermarkets
The first in the range is the Little Swimmers Hygiene Mat – a neoprene foldaway mat which keeps small feet dry and safe from wet changing room floors and is easily packed into a waterproof sleeve.
The project required the brand strategy and design consultancy to work closely with Kimberly-Clark and with mothers and fathers to discover how they could make functional and, what they call, “fun swim-time accessories which earned their place in the swimbag”.
In a statement, Webb deVlam said: “Trips to the swimming pool require a lot of forethought and packing: of course there are the obvious items such as towels, goggles, snacks, and wet wipes but toys can seem surplus to necessity. So creating an item that young swimmers identified with and that parents felt would help them was fundamental to coming up with concepts. The first concept that made the grade is the Hygiene Mat.”
‘Engagement with the product’
Ed Adamson led the project for Webb deVlam. He said: “Obviously this project was a lot of fun and as all members of the team are parents it was easy to get carried away with ideas but we always came back to the key insight: we needed to engage the child and give mum or dad five minutes to get themselves changed.
“So for example, with the hygiene mat, the waterproof pack which the mat folds away into is a frog or a penguin: the mat becomes a character that babies want to bring along to their swim-time and they are then involved in unpacking the mat and again in packing it away and taking the frog or penguin home.
“The engagement with the product is consistent throughout the whole journey.”
The packaging of the product had to address the fact that the Hygiene Mat would be stocked on shelf alongside Huggies Little Swimmers in the supermarket aisles. For this reason, the communications on pack had to be clear and the product had to be visible in the retail display, according to the firm.
‘ A relished challenge’
Caroline Stanley, commercial business manager of Kimberly-Clark said: “Every stumbling block was a relished challenge to be overcome, and not content with one solution, the Webb deVlam team would often go beyond the most obvious to explore alternative options.
“The benefits of working with Webb DeVlam were exceeded when we started work on the 2D side of the project. A short brand briefing was all that was required as so much of the product-specific thinking was already achieved with the team. The quality of the output from the Graphics team clearly showed that work was being carried out internally to ensure the packs sold the benefits of the products in the best possible way.”
The next product to be released from the range is scheduled to hit shelves in 2014.
