Giving Bilingual Families the Gift of Literacy

Kansas Health Foundation: Just Like You Book

2 GOLD ADDYS – DISTRICT 9 AMERICAN ADVERTISING AWARDS

How to make early learning fun for a highly targeted demographic.

Shortly after launching Can’t Wait to Read, we saw an opportunity to boost the campaign’s resonance in a tight-knit Hispanic community. With an approach based in behavioral science and human-centered design, we created an effective and highly targeted extension to the overall campaign.

Just Like You book cover isolated on white
Mother and daughter reading Just Like You book on a couch
TOTAL BOOKS DISTRIBUTED

11,476

TARGET POPULATION REACHED

80%

SOCIAL MEDIA IMPRESSIONS

11,005,768

Illustration from the book of a mother and grandmother embracing
Illustration from the book of a father and son playing guitar

An educational toolkit disguised as a picture book.

We packaged more than a dozen valuable literacy resources into the ultimate early learning tool: a children’s storybook. Every element of “Just Like You” was intentionally designed and tested for cultural authenticity, sensitivity and resonance.

Just Like You book open showing a spread of a mother and son making tortillas. The book is open on a table with tortilla ingredients laid out.

“The content, the colorful illustrations and characters are so culturally diverse! It fits so well with our population of students and demographics! Thank you!” Louisa Garcia Gonzalez | Dual Language Teacher in Liberal, Kansas

Child writing her name in the Just Like You book inside cover.
Boy placing Just Like You stickers on a folder.
Group of kids coloring and playing with Just Like You book and stickers on a table.

Earning trust with authenticity.

To get the book and its valuable resources into the community, we equipped local media and trusted community influencers to spread the word – bilingually, of course. They became the voice of “Just Like You” in videos, radio ads, social ads and book distribution events.

Our target audiences heavily indexed for online entertainment and smartphone use, so we created an augmented reality cover to help entice parents to pick up the book and learn with their children.

Quote graphic - "The community is really appreciating and enjoying the books. I cannot thank you enough for reaching out to gift and help build our community." Emily Biernacki, Programming Specialist in Garden City, Kansas

Oval button with this text: Connect with Signal Theory


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