Celebrating Life

A brand built on celebration, not assumptions

Through this deep research phase, we uncovered a strong emotional core. Keech isn’t a place people go to die – it’s something far more joyful.

Patients, volunteers and staff described Keech as an upbeat and positive organisation, full of sunshine, joy, laughter, love and happiness.  

Having listened to Keech's stakeholders, one surprising word described the brand we needed to build: Celebration.

At first glance, hospices won’t be thought of as celebratory, but we encouraged Keech to challenge preconceptions, educate audiences, and reframe people’s understanding. And to create a brand that celebrates: life, love, patients, staff, supporters and families.

We helped Keech to simplify their brand architecture, and to make sure that Keech's 2023 merger with Bedford Daycare Hospice was better articulated. 

We defined a tone of voice that’s positive, warm and inclusive, and made a number of key recommendations for Keech to implement including:

• Unpacking the word 'hospice' – to help people know what we mean when we use it
• Telling people what it's like to work in a hospice – yes it has its challenges, but it's never bleak
• Communicating Keech's breadth and ambition to be a national thought leader
• Helping more people find out about Keech's incredible work, and fixing patchy awareness
• Embracing a brand that's about life and death
• Addressing recruitment challenges
• Reaching diverse communities
• Creating an 'all age' hospice that serves adults and children
• Tweaking their name by losing the redundant word 'Care'

Finding the right agency to partner with was crucial for us. We wanted a team that would work alongside us, challenge our thinking, and ensure our voice remained at the heart of the process. From the selection stage through to appointing IE, it was clear they were a good fit for Keech Hospice. Their research-led approach gave us confidence that our brand refresh was built on real insight, ensuring we made the right changes for the future. This included a name change, something never to be taken lightly by any brand but something we have confidence to do because of insights that informed the steps we took with IE by our side.

Mellissa Higgins, Head of Marketing and Communications

Creating a bold and joyful new brand

After the IE Brand team had listened to key community stakeholders to identify what makes Keech special, we began to create a brand that is energetic and empathetic, ambitious and authentic, influential and inspired, and passionate and proud.

With Keech’s new strategy and essence agreed, our team began to define how the brand should look and sound.

IE suggested a new strapline: Making the difference when it matters most, and developed a distinctive visual identity that shifts the tone of the charity from remembrance and reflection, towards the core brand idea of celebrating life. And we created a brand messaging matrix to serve as an easy-to-use 'cheat sheet' for marcomms professionals to easily articulate the charity's beliefs, calls to actions and campaign messages.

For Keech's new visual identity, we retained the familiar Keech heart motif, and the charity's key colours: Keech Blue and Pasque Purple, but introduced a vibrant, expanded palette: Zesty Green, Loveable Cherry, and Sunshine Yellow. The new colours help the brand communicate more clearly – reflecting the hope, care and strength at Keech’s core.
 
Our new visual system included:

• Graphic shapes inspired by human connection and togetherness
• Contemporary, clear typefaces suitable for clinical and retail use
• Accessible templates for reports, posters, merchandise and digital media.

We delivered:

• An 84-page brand guidelines document
• A comprehensive messaging framework
• Iconography and infographics
• Templates for PowerPoint, fundraising, social media and more.

Keech’s CEO, Liz Searle explains: “...It’s important that our branding reflects the organisation we are today, who we’re here for and the breadth of services we provide. Our new visual identity is designed to best communicate that information to the diverse community we serve and highlight that we are accessible for everyone when they need us most. The re-fresh will also unify our services under a single, strong identity – both celebrating our heritage and preparing us for the future.”

The new identity has been adopted across Keech’s Wellbeing Centres and their 38 charity shops. It’s bold, joyful, and unmistakably Keech.

Implementation, impact, and future plans

Brand transformation doesn’t end with templates and guidelines. Ollie Leggett, IE’s Founder and Brand Strategist, was privileged to be invited to address 240 staff and volunteers and to speak alongside families at the launch event.

IE supported Keech with internal training on tone of voice and templates, so the entire team could confidently communicate the refreshed identity.

Our partnership is continuing through:

• A new website project with IE Digital
• Guidance on inclusive outreach strategies
• Support for recruitment campaigns and public engagement.

The new Keech Hospice brand reflects the true heart of the organisation. It invites people in, makes them feel welcome, and reminds everyone that, even in the hardest times, life can still be celebrated.

Following a successful rebrand, IE Digital took Keech through a tried and tested consultancy-led website project, which began with an immersion exercise with stakeholder workshops and user research. We helped the charity to define visitors’ needs and user stories and dramatically reshaped their information architecture to make the website easier to use. We then created prototypes before moving onto visual design, development and QA.

By working with a single brand and digital agency like IE, Keech has saved significant time and money and ensured that their authentic new brand is faithfully translated into a beautiful and measurably impactful new website.

We’re proud to have played a small part in helping Keech to become ‘more than just a hospice’ – a national thought leader, an integral part of the local health and social care system, a sector leader and a change maker.