​​Background:

Understood is a nonprofit that serves the needs of children with learning and attention issues. The organization’s focus is on giving parents (or caregivers) of the individual, the access to tools, expertise and resources needed to support the individual’s development.

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Challenge​:

Undertsood's aspirations included expanding their target universe beyond parents and elevating the brand at the national level, to become the go-to resource in the category. For the pitch they asked us to present a strategic framework and roadmap that answered the question "Keeping today in mind, what should tomorrow look like for Understood?"

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Our Solution:

• We immersed ourselves in their website and numerous online resources and spent time reviewing the current state of learning disabilities through proprietary and desk research.

• Interviewed a mother of a twice exceptional child, and spoke with a public school social worker who works with kids with learning issues.

• Detailed discovery helped us better understand what the brand stood for today, but more importantly it provided real-world insights into where we could help take them tomorrow.

• Our final strategic recommendation challenged them to re-think the way they structured their offerings and their current audience strategy.

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Result:

We were considered a long shot compared with the larger, better-known agencies competing in the pitch but still made it to the final round. The clients said that we surprised them with our fresh perspective and bold strategic thinking. They informed us that they did not award us the business mainly due to our size.