Brand and communication agency for childcare
From brand strategy and positioning to concept, campaign, website and online marketing.
Schwung is a Dutch brand and communication agency based in Tilburg, working with childcare organisations across the Netherlands. Every childcare organisation promises development. The difference lies in what parents and staff actually see. Parents choose with their gut, in a couple of minutes, usually on their phone. Pedagogical staff choose an employer they want to belong to. Both look at imagery, tone and atmosphere long before they read your pedagogical policy. We make the brand, the concept and the creative work that makes a childcare organisation recognisable.
Concept, campaign and everything that follows from it
Strategy is not the end product here, it is the starting point. The work begins once there is an idea you can see: a concept that makes the open day, the recruitment campaign, the front of the building and the Instagram post all look like the same organisation. We make that ourselves, from first sketch to print-ready file.
Concept
The idea that holds everything together. Not a slogan added afterwards, but the thought that campaign, identity and website follow from.
Campaign
Recruiting parents and recruiting staff, online and offline. From open day and neighbourhood campaign to social, advertising and DOOH.
Identity and design
Logo, colour, typography, imagery and illustration. A style that suits children without becoming childish, and that takes parents seriously.
Materials
Brochures, parent-portal communication, signage and decoration on location, posters, flyers, banners and giveaways.
Production
Photography and film on location, illustration, animation, print supervision. Your own imagery instead of stock photos of laughing children.
Online
Website, careers environment, social templates and advertising. The same concept, translated to the screen where parents actually choose.
Five things we help childcare organisations with
What your organisation stands for, before anything is designed
A pedagogical vision is not yet a brand. The foundation is the question of what your organisation genuinely does differently for children, parents and staff, and why anyone should believe it. We gather that from the board, location managers and pedagogical staff, not from a policy document.
- Brand research, inside and out, with the sector as a mirror
- Core values a colleague can explain, not decoration
- Brand story for parents, staff and partners
Taking a position the organisation down the road has not already taken
Development, play and safety are shared ground. Positioning means choosing: which parents are you there for first, what exactly do you promise them, and what do you deliberately leave to others? For child centres and IKCs there is the added question of how childcare, school and centre relate in name and logo.
- Baseline: where do you stand relative to the organisations around you?
- Brand promise and audience choice, with evidence underneath
- Brand architecture for locations, labels, IKC and education partners
Concept, campaign, design, materials and production
This is where the work happens that people recognise you by. A concept that makes the positioning visible, worked out into campaign, identity, photography, print, on-site decoration and online materials. For Kinderstad we developed one brand out of a merger of two organisations: name, brand foundation and the complete visual identity.
- Creative concept and campaign platform
- Visual identity, imagery, illustration and photography
- Every material, from open day to signage, online and offline
A website where a parent decides within two minutes
A childcare website has two jobs: showing a parent whether this suits their child, and showing a pedagogical professional whether this suits them. That calls for a structure built around their questions, location pages that are accurate, and a tour request that works on a phone. We build bespoke, not from a template, and accessible to WCAG.
- Question-led structure for parents, staff and partners
- Location pages, tour requests and enrolment flows
- A CMS location managers can maintain themselves, with integrations
Being found by parents in your neighbourhood, and by AI
Parents search hyperlocally: childcare plus their neighbourhood or village. That requires findability per location, not only at organisation level. And increasingly they put the question to an AI system rather than to Google, which sets different requirements for what your site says.
- Local findability per location and business profile
- Findability in AI answers, with your own research as a source
- Recruitment campaigns for parents and for staff
Who we did this for
For Kinderstad in Tilburg we built one brand out of two merging organisations: brand foundation, name and the complete visual identity. Alongside that we work for organisations with the same challenge, a public brand that has to speak to children, parents and professionals at once.
We do not guess about this sector, we have read it
For the Schwung Brand Landscape (Merkbeeld) Childcare we read the websites of 22 childcare organisations on brand promise, theme, audience and evidence. That research is not a product we sell, it is the material we start a concept with: it shows which ground is still free. The research itself is published in Dutch: Schwung Merkbeeld Kinderopvang 2026.
position themselves around a pedagogical vision, and 13 run a named method of their own. So that is no longer distinctive ground, it is an entry requirement.
backs up its claims strongly, with figures or research. Evidence is the scarcest asset in this group, and therefore the fastest way to stand out.
The full research, with every count, source and the dataset (Dutch) → Whitepaper: how 22 childcare organisations position themselves (Dutch) →
Frequently asked questions about brand and communication in childcare
What does a brand agency do for a childcare organisation?
Create the difference between locations that look alike. Concretely: establish the brand foundation and the positioning, build a creative concept on top of that, and carry it through into visual identity, campaign, materials, website and online marketing. For Kinderstad we built one brand out of the merger of two organisations, including the name and the complete visual identity.
Why do childcare organisations look so similar?
Because almost everyone positions around the same core. In the 22 organisations we read for the Schwung Merkbeeld Childcare 2026, the pedagogical vision is the dominant theme for 21 of 22 and development for 17. That is not a lack of creativity, it is the norm of the sector being used as a brand promise. Distinction comes after that: from a sharp concept, a visual language of your own, and evidence.
Do you produce the campaign and the materials yourselves?
Yes. Concept, campaign, design and production are all in house: from visual identity and photography to open days, recruitment campaigns, on-site signage and the advertising that goes with it. Online and offline from the same idea, so a parent sees the same brand at the front door as on Instagram.
How do you recruit pedagogical staff in a tight labour market?
With an employer brand that matches the reality, not with more vacancy posts. Of the 22 organisations in our research, 18 run an employer promise, but only 8 have a careers environment on a domain of their own. We gather the promise from the staff themselves, turn it into a concept, and carry it through into the application and the first months.
Do you also work for child centres and IKCs?
Yes, and it is a challenge of its own. In the group we researched, 13 of 22 operate as an integrated child centre and 10 through a loose partnership per location. Then it becomes a question of brand architecture: how do childcare, school and centre relate to each other in name, logo and story?
Which region does Schwung work for?
From Tilburg we work for childcare organisations across Noord-Brabant and beyond, including Breda, Eindhoven and 's-Hertogenbosch. The organisations in our research come from all over the Netherlands.
Ask Nick.
A brand, campaign or website question in childcare? Give us a call and we will look at what fits, with the research on the table.