Koto creates “weird and lovable” brand for Fitbit’s gamified kids wearable

Is there a world where gaming could be good for you? Aimed at 7+ year olds, Fitbit Ace LTE is a pretty unique wearable and fresh proposition for gaming from the smart tech brand. Designed to get kids moving and entice them into the world of activity through immersive gameplay, the device goes beyond Fitbit’s usual step counters or activity trackers for adults — it aims to motivate young people to get active through a range of interactive 3D worlds.

Inside the new smartwatch’s universe, Bit Valley, each user has a personal ‘eejie’, which is a “customisable creature that feeds off your daily activity”. The more you do, the happier this ‘eejie’ is, (think Tamagotchi for Gen Alpha). The device also features GPS tracking and a range of safety features to get parents and guardians onboard.

With the mission to get “a generation of gamers” moving with this new wearable tech for little ones, Google (which bought Fitbit in 2021) approached Koto studio to create a brand for Ace LTE that “spoke to kid’s zest for life” — something that was immediately “bold, playful, weird and loveable”. Starting out with brand research, Koto’s creative director Caroline Fox tells us: “The Ace team came to us with an immensely exhaustive amount of research done on the category, the hardware, the audience, and the tech. They laid an incredible foundation for us to use as a jumping-off point going into creative.”

From their immersion into the world of the product and the consumer, Koto worked on a brand strategy and a visual and verbal identity extending from the watch’s marketing through to digital and packaging. To position Fitbit’s Ace LTE as the “exciting alternative to traditional and sedentary gaming experiences” (and the coolest new thing at school), Koto focused its strategy for Ace LTE around the limitless fun of its immersive games, encouraging “play for play’s sake” and the benefits of movement in and out of the device.

Their brand strategy “Because it’s fun”, became the springboard for the design of all of Koto’s brand touchpoints. Playing off of Google’s creative avatar characters, the team developed a custom typeface called “Eejie-type Sans”. A letterset that Caroline describes as “a bold, larger-than-life typeface, outfitted with the quirks and surprises you’re more than likely to find in the world of Bit Valley — with reference to the watch band’s design thrown in.” Building on this, the Ace LTE wordmark embraces “a ‘zoomy’ perspective reflecting the activated nature of children on the go”, Caroline says.

The vibrant project is the result of a two-year collaboration with Fitbit that “went far beyond creating a brand”, shares Caroline, “it was about truly representing a younger generation of gamers and inspiring motivation to get up and go”. The team at Koto hope that every aspect of the vibrant brand system “resonates authentically with both kids and parents”.