How Rascals is growing brand awareness across five markets with powerful parent-first positioning

Any parent knows those early weeks and months with a little one can feel like beautiful chaos. You know: sleepless nights, never-ending diaper changes, and barely enough time to catch their breath. It’s joyful, yes—but it’s also exhausting. That’s where Rascals, opens in new tab comes in.

Born in 2016, Rascals was created by parents, for parents—those juggling the relentless demands of raising a baby while balancing work, life, and everything in between. They understand that today’s parents are navigating a whole new world—where mums return to work sooner, dads are stepping in as primary carers, and the pressure (financial and emotional) is real.

With a mission to develop products that help reduce the stress of early parenthood, Rascals delivers high-performing, premium-quality diapers and wipes that are gentle, ultra absorbent and don't break the bank.

What makes Rascals different? 🧷♥️

Originally founded by a mom of four in New Zealand, Rascals was born from a need for high-performing but gentle diapers that were accessible to all families. Since then, the brand has scaled to 30+ markets globally, becoming a trusted name for millions of parents around the world.

Rascals has earned a loyal following not just for its award-winning products and over 210,000 5-star reviews, but also for its clear parent-first positioning.

From day one, Rascals has built its brand as a true friend to parents—using marketing that speaks with empathy, humor, and honesty. This approach has helped Rascals stand out in a category where most brands speak to babies, not the people raising them.

Tahlia Rawle, Rascals' Marketing Manager – Baby, says it best:

“The nappy category has been long dominated by legacy players whose branding is rooted in a historic era, and products haven’t evolved with the modern parenting experience. Meanwhile, today’s parents are navigating more than ever: balancing careers, relationships, and mental health—all while raising young children, often without much support.”

She continues, “Rascals is stepping in as more than just a product brand—we’re here to support parents. We believe the category is ready for a new kind of leader: one that listens, innovates, and puts parents’ wellbeing at the centre. While legacy brands focus on baby care, we shift the spotlight to the people doing the caring, because we believe when parents feel supported and seen, they’re better parents.”

How Rascals has seen multi-market growth 🌍⏳

Rascals has big ambitions. While the brand is available in 30+ markets globally, it’s currently focused on deepening its presence across five tier-one markets:

🇦🇺Australia

🇳🇿New Zealand

🇬🇧United Kingdom

🇨🇦Canada

🇺🇸United States.

Rascals is using Tracksuit to monitor their brand’s trajectory in all these markets. Here are some of the most rewarding results they’ve seen:

• 📈 Strong year-over-year growth in brand awareness across all regions, with particularly notable momentum in Canada, where awareness has surged to nearly 60% within its core demographic of women aged 25–44—one of the brand’s top-performing markets.
• 🛒 Retail-specific traction is on the rise. In the U.S., Rascals is gaining attention among Walmart shoppers, while in Australia, awareness is growing among Coles shoppers, signaling strong alignment with key distribution partners.
• 👩‍👧 Rascals is resonating with their target demographic—women aged 25–44. Awareness and consideration among this group continues to trend upward, showing that their strategy is reaching the right audience with the right message.
• 💧 Product credibility is rising: In the last six months, Rascals saw a 6% lift in absorbency recognition in both the UK and Canada, reinforcing the brand’s reputation for high performance.

Thanks to Tracksuit, Rascals can monitor this progress in real time—and continue refining how they show up for parents across every market.

Betting big on brand and playing the long game ⏳

In 2024, Rascals kicked off a bold, two-year brand transformation with one clear mission: to emotionally connect with a new generation of parents.

Structured in two phases, the first phase involved a refresh launch (May-September 2024) that rolled out a new visual identity and packaging. Here, Rascals announced its name change from "Rascal + Friends" to simply "Rascals," and introduced new packaging that's easier and more cut-through for parents to spot on shelves.

It involved several activations across multiple channels, including:

• Organic and paid social
• PR
• Paid influencer campaigns
• Mass community seeding to brand fans
• DTC samples
• and more.

But that was just the beginning. Phase two is where the brand messaging comes to life through the "We Get It," brand platform. Crafted with humor, empathy and authenticity, the campaign centers around Rascals' commitment to making life easier for parents.

As Amelia Watson, Rascals Head of Marketing, says, opens in new tab:

“‘We Get It’ is our way of celebrating parents with a message that's honest, relatable, and uplifting. It blends humour and truth, offering all the support they can get––because parents deserve it just as much as their little ones do."

The "We Get It" campaign launched in January 2025, and is scheduled to run for the foreseeable future, as the guiding star and a lasting expression of what the brand truly stands for.

A surprising twist: long-term plans yielding quick wins 🙌 ⭐

As part of their bold transformation, Rascals rethought their brand building vs. sales driving strategy, moving toward a 60/40 split—a conscious decision to prioritize brand-building while still keeping a foot in performance. The thinking? Invest in long-term emotional equity with parents while maintaining the ability to drive near-term results.

Rascals is clearly thinking about long-term branding. And the thing about playing the long game is the expectation of delayed gratification—you invest now, and the results will come later.

While this can certainly be true in many cases, Rascals started seeing results much sooner than expected. As mentioned above, Rascals quickly gained traction across multiple markets, deepening retailer endorsement, connecting with their core demographic of women aged 25–44, and strengthening product credibility—especially around absorbency and leak protection of their diapers.

Backed by Tracksuit’s brand tracking platform, the team could see these shifts in real time, filtering insights by region, retailer, and audience to understand what’s driving brand consideration and where to optimize next.

“Our favourite Tracksuit feature is the rich insight it provides into brand perceptions. The platform helps us unpack what people actually know and feel about Rascals, not just whether they've heard of us. This has been key in sharpening our focus on core USPs—absorbency as our hero product claim, and relatability as our emotional edge championed through our new brand platform, We Get It,” remarks Tahlia.

With Tracksuit, Rascals was able to measure brand awareness, perception, and positioning. The team first started tracking in the US and Australia in March 2023, which means they’ve already built a strong historical dataset. In January 2024, they expanded tracking to Canada, the UK, and New Zealand—allowing them to monitor their five core markets as the brand refresh rolled out.

For Rascals, having access to these nuanced, real-time insights has elevated how they approach brand-building—not just creatively, but strategically.

As Tahlia notes, “These insights now guide how and where we invest in building brand credentials to shift perceptions where it matters most, and we’ve dialled up messaging focusing on our product quality to try and rectify.”

Tracksuit’s dashboard enables the Rascals team to:

• View brand metrics over time using the timeline feature
• Filter insights by key audience segments, especially women aged 25–44
• Slice data by retailer audience, like Walmart in the US and Coles in Australia
• Use the Training Ground module to identify which brand attributes move consumers from awareness to consideration (for Rascals, trust is the #1 driver)
• Monitor statement-level insights, such as how the brand is perceived on absorbency, value, and innovation

Using Tracksuit to measure brand performance and perception, the team could track real-time feedback on how their new brand identity is landing with consumers. For the team, some of the best parts of implementing the brand's long-term plan include building the perception of Rascals in creative ways and seeing more interaction with the brand.

According to Tahlia, “One of the most rewarding outcomes has been seeing a tangible lift in awareness, especially with the launch of our refreshed packaging. The new design and improved visibility on shelf, paired with our broader marketing campaign, saw clear movement in top-of-funnel metrics.”

She adds, “Tracksuit has been invaluable throughout this process, especially in monitoring sentiment during the packaging change. We knew customers might have concerns about trust and quality, as is often the case when brands make a change to their packaging, but the ability to track and respond in real time gave us confidence and clarity at every step.”

Final words

Rascals is proving that brand building isn't just a long game, it's a smart one. With Tracksuit helping the company measure, monitor, and refine its approach across markets, Rascals is well-equipped to measure and scale its brand.

As for Tracksuit’s role in what’s next? Tahlia says:

“Tracksuit will play a critical role in this next phase. It helps us track how our message is landing both emotionally and also functionally, especially around trust, relatability, and connection. We will also use it to monitor the most influential drivers of consideration, refine our storytelling, and spot strategic opportunities ahead of the curve.”

“As we grow into a modern, parent-first lifestyle brand, Tracksuit is our north star for brand health, enabling confident, data-backed decisions every step of the way.”