How Carter’s is refreshing its brand to reach Gen Z, millennial parents

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Carter’s is focusing on self-expression and individuality for an identity refresh and accompanying marketing campaign titled “Watch Them Glow,” per details shared with sister publication Marketing Dive. The effort, rooted in a promise to “let every child’s light shine,” is designed to help the brand connect with young millennial and Gen Z parents while maintaining its 161-year-old legacy.
“Watch Them Glow” launched Tuesday with a 60-second spot spanning connected TV, digital and social channels. The campaign is in support of a refreshed brand identity that features a new logo, revamped social media presence — including a creator program — and multiyear partnerships with organizations designed to support children and families.
The work follows plans by parent Carter’s, Inc. to increase marketing spend this year, a move that executives said has already contributed to recent revenue gains. With “Watch Them Glow,” Carter’s is hoping to continue that momentum, said Chief Marketing Officer Sarah Crockett.
“This is a job to be done over multiple years,” she said. “A new brand promise is not something that you just check off… this is going to continue to roll out and touch every place that the Carter’s brand ultimately exists, and that’s going to take a bit of time, but it’s something that we are in pursuit of for the next generation.”
The campaign’s hero spot begins by showcasing Carter’s new logo, which sees the apostrophe in the brand’s name swapped for a shooting star meant to symbolize the light each child brings into the world, while a refreshed script takes inspiration from earlier Carter’s logos. The spot transitions to a compilation of home video-style clips while a voice-over describes the qualities that make children unique before stating, “The world spends years teaching them to fit in, but for generations, Carter’s has had the honor of making clothes that let children shine.”
The spot will air across CTV platforms including Nexxen, Roku, Disney+ and Hulu, along with Carter’s digital and social channels. The refreshed identity will begin rolling out across Carter’s channels this year, with additional elements spanning retail, product and packaging planned for 2027.
The power of self-expression
Carter’s focus on individuality is supported by Pew Research Center data which revealed that nearly half of U.S. parents say they are raising their children differently than they were raised, with accepting children as they are and encouraging them to follow their own path arising as a key theme. The findings helped inspire the “Watch Them Glow” campaign and identity refresh, the latter of which includes the brand’s first new logo since 2000, Crockett said.
“Today’s generation of parents are really embracing this notion of self-expression,” Crockett said. “We want to see all of those characteristics that you, as the child in this household, can bring to the table, and we want to encourage that.”
The work also targets Gen Z and young millennial parents, cohorts who are more likely than their predecessors to consider a brand’s values when making purchasing decisions, Crockett explained, an insight that helped inform the brand’s choice to take a more emotional approach to its marketing.
“Carter’s is proud to say that we are a brand that means value to our consumers, and value is defined not just by price, but understanding that you get the right trust, the right quality, the right style at the right price,” she said. “That is something that is incredibly important for us to color with this overarching, updated brand promise.”
Furthering Carter’s efforts is a revamped social media strategy inclusive of refreshed creative, tone of voice, product storytelling and community narratives designed to celebrate the various facets of childhood. The marketer is also introducing a new creator program, dubbed Light Makers, which will celebrate the individuals working to give children the best outcomes. The creator program is also meant to help relieve the growing pressure parents face today as a result of social media’s rise by offering a trusted and encouraging voice, Crockett said.
“We know that families are overwhelmed by the sources of information. In past generations, you really had experts — you would go to experts for parenting advice,” she said. “In today’s world, crowdsourced, peer-based experts are social media personalities … so studying our way into that and trying to find the clearest paths to impact our families and communities led us to a digital-focused effort here.”
The creator push will be supported by a Glow Grants program, which will award grants to select members of the Light Makers community to help them take their work further. The Light Makers program will roll out this year in the U.S. and Canada, and Carter’s will award up to 15 Glow Grants within the first year.
‘Putting a stake in the ground’
Carter’s latest work follows news earlier this year that parent Carter’s, Inc., which includes its namesake brand along with Little Planet, OshKosh B’gosh, Skip Hop and Otter Avenue, would boost its marketing investments. That investment has already shown signs of promise, with net sales increasing 5% in Q2 2026, gains attributed by CEO and President Sharon Price John to improved marketing efforts.
For the Carter’s brand, those efforts have included refreshing its marketing mix to prioritize the channels that are preferred by its target audience and allow for greater storytelling. It has also meant leaning more into upper-funnel marketing to connect with consumers on a deeper level beyond price, Crockett said in a previous interview with Marketing Dive. The identity refresh and “Watch Them Glow” campaign is a manifestation of that work, she explained.
“If I just put my brand hat on at large as a marketer, a lot of times, businesses kind of get stuck in this demand-capture space where it’s available … and that can distract from all the work that we also need to do in continuing to build that consideration,” Crockett said.
Rounding out Carter’s efforts are expanded investments in resources made to create more opportunities for children, including ongoing support for Boys & Girls Clubs of America and a new partnership with Outward Bound. All together, the approach is meant to offer consumers tangible evidence that Carter’s is a like-minded brand with the future in mind, Crockett said.
“We’re putting a stake in the ground,” she said. “We’re dedicating our platform to something that will make a difference in society — we’re not overstating our role, we can’t completely change the way that children grow up on our own — but we can certainly try to tackle those things that we know ultimately could improve the quality of childhood.”

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