Challenge
ecobee, the inventors of the smart thermostat, were looking for a way to stand out in the very homogenized category of lifestyle technologies during the busy Black Friday season. Art & Science conceived a series of playful, eye-catching and creative ways to evoke ideas of connectivity, making the invisible visible and—ultimately—saving money. Our client fell in love with our animated banner concepts based on the inventions of cartoonist Rube Goldberg.
Solution
UNIQUE CREATIVE Combining everyday household objects with charming, unusual items—from toy robots to llama-shaped piñatas—we developed a series of animated narratives always started with an ecobee device, and always ended by producing money out of thin air. But the middle of each narrative is where the magic happens, as tea kettles steam, cats knock over water glasses, rockets launch skyward and more. Our isometric illustration style, with its distinct colour palette, was designed to catch people’s eye during a competitive shopping season. A truly mass-market campaign, we produced well over 280 assets for the Black Friday campaign—from HTML5 banners and Facebook carousels, to LinkedIn videos, Instagram stories and more. We even took over part of the ecobee homepage. Thrilled with the creative, our client asked us to extend the campaign, and create additional animated contraptions for Cyber Monday and the Holiday season.
Results
In the end, we produced four different narratives, all designed for multiple platforms, and delivered 422 unique ads assets in just under five weeks! ecobee saw a 40% boost in sales over the previous year’s campaign, and their best Black Friday ever “by far”. Their competitors “resorted to incredibly deep discounting in a vain attempt to keep pace”. It’s clear that this campaign was a huge success. So smart, it paid for itself. But don’t take our word for it. Read our client’s review of this engagement.
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