The initial brief was to create a physical direct mail piece that would be delivered to a select audience at a c-suite level across North America and Europe. This piece would include an invitation to an executive briefing, which would usually be held at the Autodesk technology centres. However, during the early stages of the project the COVID-19 global pandemic led to companies across the world to start working from home and prevented businesses from gathering for events.
At this point, the brief was altered to take the project digital. The goals remained the same, with driving sign ups to the briefings (which would now be hosted virtually) still the key factor.
After initially creating concepts for a physical mail piece, these were archived for potential use in the future and we switched our thinking onto turning this into a digital output. After exploring a few options, we identified an online landing page as being the ideal medium for the digital invite as this allowed for greater creative design and interactivity.
With the visual appearance of the landing page there were a few criteria we needed to meet. The visual identity needed to reflect Autodesk branding, appeal to a c-suite audience, and support an engaging and relevant flow of content
The criteria were met by using relevant imagery, a sleek combination of colours, and breaking the page down into sections, visually separated with the use of various page elements and background styles.
Additionally, as the Autodesk technology centres played such a vital role in the original executive briefings, we were eager to incorporate these into the landing page. As well as using imagery of the technology centres as full bleed backgrounds, we included a specific section of the page which allows the invitees to explore each centre in more detail with interactive image cards.
In creating the content, we wanted to strike the right balance of information. We aimed to provide enough information to highlight the value of the briefings and what invitees can expect, without exceeding a level of content that would make the invite feel more like a informational asset.
Above-the-fold we summarised the invite and the briefings, so the purpose of this page was immediately clear to the invitee. On scrolling the page, the recipient would explore what a virtual executive briefing is, the benefits it can bring to their business, examples of other customers who have benefited, a sample agenda, and further information around the technology centres and Autodesk’s development in advanced technology.
In keeping with the goal of generating sign ups, we placed CTAs at all relevant touchpoints on the page to ensure the recipient was easily able to book their briefing when they were ready.
Once the landing page had been finalised, it was important to create an asset which enabled Autodesk to share the page with the target audience. An email was the ideal medium as it allowed for quick delivery of the invite, tracking of those who received and opened, and follow ups.
For consistency, we designed the email to follow on from the landing page creative and create a connection between the two.
