Unpacking unBoxed: Making Amazon Ads’ Biggest Product Event of the Year
Services
Art direction
Content strategy
Information design
2D & 3D Motion graphics
Presentation design
Social media
Product research
On-site technical assistance
Football fans have the Super Bowl, movie buffs have the Oscars, and B2B advertisers have Amazon unBoxed – Amazon Ads’ annual flagship product launch event.
In one of Amazon’s biggest press, marketing, and technology events of the year, they turned to Code and Theory to design and execute an entire visual ecosystem for its suite of products. This included a close partnership with Amazon's product teams, marketing staff, and senior leadership to create a host of design assets, both on-stage and online – all in less than six months.
Impact
- +99% YoY Live-streaming video viewers
- 50M Impressions from press in Adweek, Ad Age, Forbes, Campaign, Mediapost and more
- 224 Original assets developed across event graphics, videos, social media and marketing collateral — all in under 8 weeks
Crafting a unified design system
Amazon unBoxed is a multifaceted, complex event to manage. It concurrently showcases its diverse product base across more than 10 digital touchpoints, including live event content, social channels, and live streams. A holistic team made up of writers, designers, strategists, and motion designers developed a design system that was cohesive and flexible to support every aspect of the full event.
We integrated 3D animation techniques to punctuate Amazon's new offerings and key product information. Simple shapes paired with vibrant colors made complex information palatable and engaging. The design system ultimately used deliberate visual cues, motion, and messaging to highlight the most important elements of the new product features. This streamlined approach made the unBoxed experience resonate for its many audiences—both at the event and streaming from around the world.
An immersive partnership
In order to create 22 different product demo videos, we conducted 50+ interviews across an array of Amazon's product teams to fully immerse ourselves in the making of each product, as well as the B2B benefits for its intended audiences. From these interviews, we applied custom UI language to each product (or, in some cases, esoteric concepts) and used that visual direction as a foundation to build videos that were a blend of 2D and 3D styles.
Content creation across the spectrum
This made for a look and feel that was at once cinematic and educational. Most importantly, it was ownable for Amazon Ads, positioning it as an advertising powerhouse. This involved the art direction, testing, and development of over 200 assets including:
Event product demos
Translating event content into social media content
All social media assets before, during and after the event, including translating event collateral into social content
Presentation design for 15 presenters
This flagship moment galvanizes Amazon Ads' Product and Sales leaders and allows us to build our roadmap in tandem to announce the biggest products — all in a premium experience.
Setting the standard
Based on the impact and reach of unBoxed 2023, Amazon Ads is teaming up with Code and Theory in 2024 to create even more buzz and excitement, including extending the event across the globe to seven new regions.
