Fello

People with disabilities, people the organization serves, families, employees, donors, partners, and policymakers needed to see both continuity and progress: the same mission and commitment, expressed through a brand designed to stand on its own. Our challenge was to create a name and identity broad enough to unite a complex portfolio of services and strong enough to support Fello’s continued growth.

idfive led a comprehensive discovery process that included a brand and communications audit, stakeholder interviews, focus groups, and a collaborative workshop using empathy mapping, personality mapping, and visual exercises. The research revealed an organization that was established and entrepreneurial, professional and deeply personal. Across audiences, the same themes surfaced: advocacy, trust, choice, access, innovation, and community.

Those insights shaped the naming criteria. The new name needed to be strong, warm, memorable, easy to say and spell, free from acronyms, and flexible enough to work across programs and future sub-brands. After extensive name development, linguistic consideration, preliminary legal research, leadership discussions, and board presentations, idfive created Fello.

Fello draws from “fellow”: a neighbor, a citizen, an ally, and someone connected to a shared purpose. The name is approachable, confident, and broad enough to represent services, housing, behavioral health, advocacy, and community development. Together, we are Fello.

With the name established, idfive developed the strategy, voice, and visual identity that would define the brand. The platform brought Fello’s mission, values, promise, audiences, personality, and messaging into one clear foundation centered on the power of choice and community. Five pillars gave the organization a consistent way to communicate the breadth of its work: expanding choice, engaging with respect, addressing unmet needs, advocating for change, and fostering inclusive communities.

The visual identity balanced confidence with humanity. A bold wordmark gave Fello a strong, recognizable presence, while accessible typography, a flexible color palette, expressive graphic elements, and people-centered photography created room for warmth, individuality, and real stories. idfive translated the strategy into a practical system through brand and editorial guidelines covering messaging, typography, color, photography, and design, then extended the identity across signage, environmental graphics, employee onboarding, internal communications, social assets, presentations, email templates, print collateral, marketing materials, and digital applications.

Leadership and board presentations built alignment throughout the process, while training gave employees and partners the tools to use the brand consistently. The rollout began with the people closest to the organization, supported by a coordinated launch strategy and two videos: one for internal audiences and one for the broader community. Together, they explained the transition while reinforcing the same people, experience, values, and commitment behind the new name.

The public launch introduced Fello. A yearlong awareness campaign helped make the name familiar. Grounded in Together, we are Fello, the campaign spanned high-impact digital and display media, OTT and online video, transit and out-of-home placements, paid social, Paid Search, and campaign landing pages. Bold headlines and real-life imagery brought the identity into market with clarity, warmth, and confidence while helping audiences understand who Fello is and why its work matters.

Watch Brand Launch Video    Watch Brand Anthem Video

The work gave Fello a name, identity, and platform equal to the scale of its mission.

For the first time, Services, Self-Directed Services, Behavioral Health, and Communities could come together under one connected brand. The new system gave Fello a clearer way to communicate its breadth while creating flexibility across programs, audiences, and future growth.

The internal rollout helped employees and stakeholders understand and embrace the transition before the public launch. From there, the integrated awareness campaign introduced Fello across digital, social, search, video, transit, print, and out-of-home media, building the reach and repetition needed to establish the new name across the region.

From launch through year-end, the campaign delivered strong performance across paid search, display, OTT, and the Fello website while consistently outperforming industry benchmarks.

Performance highlights included:

• Paid Search CTR: 12.51% during the launch period / Industry benchmark: 4.41%
• Cross-Platform Display CTR: 0.43% during the launch period / Industry benchmark: 0.20%
• OTT completion rate: 97.13% by year-end / Industry benchmark: 85%

Paid Search provided an especially strong signal that the new identity was taking hold. Overall search performance reached a 12.51% click-through rate during the launch period, nearly three times the industry benchmark. Within that performance, branded searches stood out even further: the Brand ad group reached a 29.36% click-through rate at launch, while individual “Fello” searches climbed above 30% later in the year.

The campaign also contributed to substantial year-over-year website growth during the initial launch period:

• Sessions increased 70%
• New users increased 105%
• Returning users increased 53%
• Average session duration increased 8%

Beyond the campaign results, the brand system gave Fello the tools to carry the identity across its own communications, environments, programs, events, and employee experiences with consistency.