Brand and communication agency for elderly care
From brand strategy and positioning to employer brand, concept, campaign and website.
Schwung is a Dutch brand and communication agency based in Tilburg, working with elderly care organisations across the Netherlands. Elderly care is changing, and the story has to change with it. More older people need care while the number of people who can provide it is not growing. Care is shifting to the home, technology is taking a bigger role, and organisations are fishing in the same labour market. We work on brands, employer brands and websites in elderly care, from positioning through to practice.
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 recruitment campaign, the client brochure, the reception area and the careers site 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 staff and reaching clients and their families, online and offline. From neighbourhood campaign to social, advertising and DOOH.
Identity and design
Logo, colour, typography, imagery and illustration. A style that is warm without being patronising, and that families take seriously.
Materials
Client brochures, intake and moving-in communication, signage and decoration on location, posters, banners and giveaways.
Production
Photography and film on location, illustration, animation, print supervision. Your own carers and clients in the picture, not stock photos.
Online
Corporate site, careers environment, social templates and advertising. The same concept, translated to the screen where families orient themselves.
Four questions we help elderly care organisations with
A recognisable brand in a market where many organisations say the same thing
Self-direction, home, nearby and together are shared ground in the organisations we read. A brand strategy therefore does not start with a new formulation, but with the question of what your organisation genuinely does differently and how you prove it. Including after a merger or with multiple labels.
- Baseline: where do you stand relative to the organisations around you?
- Positioning and brand promise in sessions with board, care and HR
- Brand story, identity and brand architecture
Finding people and keeping them
21 of the 21 organisations we read run an employer promise and 18 have a careers site on a domain of their own. The promises look a great deal alike. We take the employer brand from the practice of the staff themselves and carry it through into the application and the first months.
- EVP from conversations with staff, not from a wish list
- Labour-market concept and campaign
- Careers website connected to your applicant tracking system
One website for client, family, referrer and employee
Of the 21 sites we read, 19 address informal carers and family and 17 address referrers. Yet only 1 of 21 writes at language level B1. We build websites from the visitor’s question, understandable and accessible to WCAG, on engineering that grows with the organisation.
- Question-led structure per audience
- Plain language and accessibility as standard
- CMS choice, integrations and ongoing development
Care information a daughter, a partner and a client can understand
Anyone expected to arrange more for themselves first has to understand what is expected of them. We write and design client communication at B1 level, per moment in the journey: from the first conversation to moving into a location or arranging care at home.
- Copy and materials at B1, tested with the audience
- Client and family journey mapped
- The same brand promise in every expression
Who we did this for
For Thebe we built the careers website, the employer brand and then the corporate website. For ZuidZorg the brand strategy and a question-led corporate website. Both organisations work in nursing, care and home care.
We do not guess about this sector, we have read it
For the Schwung Brand Landscape (Merkbeeld) Elderly Care we read the websites of 21 organisations in nursing, care, home care and geriatric rehabilitation 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 Ouderenzorg 2026.
run self-direction as their dominant theme, and home appears in the positioning profile of 16 of 21. What was once a position has become the norm.
back up their claims strongly, with outcome figures or published 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 21 elderly care organisations position themselves (Dutch) →
Frequently asked questions about brand and communication in elderly care
Does Schwung have experience with communication for elderly care organisations?
Yes. Schwung works for Thebe (careers website, corporate website and the employer brand De WAUW van Thebe) and ZuidZorg (brand strategy and a question-led corporate website). We also research how organisations in nursing, care and home care position themselves: the Schwung Merkbeeld Elderly Care 2026 reads the websites of 21 organisations.
What is VVT?
VVT stands for nursing, care and home care (verpleging, verzorging en thuiszorg): the sector most elderly care in the Netherlands falls under, from district nursing and home care to nursing homes and geriatric rehabilitation. Elderly care is the everyday name, VVT the one used by policy, care offices and labour-market statistics.
How does an elderly care organisation stand out when almost everyone promises self-direction and home?
In the 21 organisations we read, 14 run self-direction as their dominant theme and 16 carry the theme of home in their profile. Distinction does not come from a better formulation there, but from focus and evidence: a defined audience, a nameable way of working, and figures or research that carry the promise. 2 of the 21 organisations back up their claims strongly. That is where a brand strategy begins.
Can Schwung build both the employer brand and the corporate website?
Yes, and that is exactly how we prefer to work. For Thebe we first built the careers website with the labour-market concept and then the corporate website, from the same brand. In our approach an employer brand is not a second brand, but the same promise worked out for staff and candidates.
Which region does Schwung work for?
From Tilburg we work for care 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, labour-market or website question in elderly care? Give us a call and we will look at what fits, with the research on the table.