11: trust-led brand awareness design

A company offering online safety tools for families and vulnerable users was struggling to communicate the real-world impact of its products without resorting to fear-based messaging. The audience either tuned out due to desensitisation or felt overwhelmed by abstract threats. The brand needed a way to create emotional urgency while still empowering its users to take meaningful action.

I was brought in to design a values-led educational asset that would:

  • humanise the issue of online safety through lived experience

  • rebuild trust in preventative tools without guilt or panic

  • activate behavioural friction—making safety feel necessary.

the strategy

  • Collaborate with a real user to share a first-person narrative that framed the psychological aftermath of online manipulation, shifting the story from “what happened” to “what I wish I’d known”

  • Embed behavioural insight triggers into the story arc—specifically, future-regret framing, emotional resonance, and identity-aligned decision-making

  • Position the brand as a compassionate safeguard, not a technical solution—focusing on emotional safety, not surveillance

  • Design the video as a community entry point: used in schools, online forums, and private parent groups to spark conversation, not just raise awareness.

the impact

  • Viewers expressed strong emotional engagement and trust, with qualitative feedback citing it as “eye-opening” and “finally a brand that gets it”

  • Used as a flagship asset across email journeys, webinars, and live talks, driving a measurable lift in demo requests and event sign-ups

  • Launched a complementary Pinterest trust archive to extend reach through visual storytelling—achieving 56K+ impressions, 325+ saves, and 20K+ audience reach, reinforcing values-first positioning in evergreen, shareable formats

  • Reframed the brand as a human-first ally, building credibility through compassion and transparency—without fear-based framing

  • Laid the groundwork for moderated support circles and trust-based communities, particularly among parents, caregivers, and educators.

kw. digital safety education, vulnerability reframing, emotional trust architecture

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case study 12