Happy Nation is an entirely new DTC brand for tweens. Happy Nation makes apparel, swim, body care, undies, and bras for tweens to stay comfy—just as they are.
King & Partners was brought on to work closely with the team at VS&Co. to establish the strategy and brand identity, and then develop tone of voice, collateral, campaign, marketing, and website. Our team’s collaborative approach to a brand new company ensures the brand remains nimble and poised to evolve as it grows. We continue to develop and lead creative direction, strategy, organic and paid social media, marketing and all things digital.
Building A Happy Nation
The brand takes a stance with its responsibility-oriented values by thoughtfully guiding its young customers through the most transformative years of their life. With a range of sizes and a gender-free approach to who can and should wear their clothes, Happy Nation is constantly evolving to fulfill their mission of “a judgment-free community for tweens.”
The tween apparel landscape has grown and shifted—tweens are smarter and savvier than ever. In order to speak genuinely to tweens and their parents alike, we landed on the Tone of Voice: the Cool Cousin. The Cool Cousin is friendly, approachable, and speaks in a manner that never intimidates. They are not quite an older sibling, not quite an acquaintance, but they’re someone you can constantly count on.
Visuals First
The VS&Co. team came to us after ideating the Happy Nation brand internally, and gave us the incredible opportunity to develop all facets of it alongside them in a truly collaborative manner. We built out the Happy Nation’s brand system, from uses for the ever playful brand emojis and stickers, to how we utilize each season’s colors within brand creative.
Launching the Brand
To launch the brand and introduce Happy Nation, we created a campaign. The styles and design of Happy Nation are colorful, bright, and exude a sense of optimism—we wanted our campaign to achieve the same. Our team sought out India Sleem, a talented director and photographer whose unfiltered, stylistic art direction echoed our vision for Happy Nation.
Director/Photographer: India Sleem
Production: Object and Animal
Talent: Studio Bauman
A Digital Dreamscape
To cater to many audiences, we chose a dynamic approach for marketing. Our organic social content acts as the vision board that inspires the rest of our young customers’ lives and serves as our brand awareness approach, while we work diligently to capture a range of prospective older audiences within paid social and email marketing.
A New Way To Navigate
Unlike most tween brands, Happy Nation’s web layout is not dictated by gender, but styles. The web experience was created with the brand’s audience top of mind, prioritizing visuals over copy and mapping out a digestible layout. Our development team continues to finesse and evolve the site.
