Brand Engine: Effortlessly create beautiful, brand-consistent campaigns
2024 | 2 Designers
OVERVIEW
Brand Engine is an Intuit-wide capability that helps customers create on-brand content. It orchestrates a collection of services and application rules which powers brand personalization experiences across the larger org.
The first two feature releases centered around key brand elements in Mailchimp campaign creation. Specifically, I was in charge of brand color, and the other designer focused on logo.
THE CHALLENGE
From late 2023 to early 2024, Mailchimp launched several experimental features aimed at generating fully ready-to-send emails. While the value propositions resonated strongly with our customers, the actual outcomes were disappointing due to the backend logic that failed to identify, intepret and apply brand assets, a lack of sophistication in understanding design best practices, and the UX entry point and flow that competed with what users were familiar with.
PROJECT GOAL
Design a solution that allows users to effortlessly create beautiful, brand-consistent content without disturbing their existing workflows
A NEW FRAMEWORK
I proposed a 3-stage framework for the new solution, and played a critical role in defining the underlying logic, specifically around color theory and application. I also created a comprehensive rubric to help grade the final emails that are generated - to complete the feedback loop.
DESIGN PRINCIPLES
THE KEY CONCEPT
The idea itself is decptively simple - bulk apply customer brand through themes, at various existing touchpoints that they go through to create campaigns.
However, this concept is only possible in execution thanks to the much more sophisticated logic that accurately captures, interprets and structures customers’ brand identity.
USER TESTING
Before we fully launched the new solution as an experiment and exposed it to dozens of thousands of users, we first ran a usability test by creating a realistic setup ingesting brand assets from participants prior emails created in Mailchimp.
The result was overwhelmingly positive.
A brand kit that keeps everything organized
Total freedom to apply brand moments anywhere in the email
Bulk apply customer branding to all campaign touchpoints
IMPACT
Within 2 weeks of release, the new palette/theme feature was adopted by 22% of the experiment cohort, with an average of 40% decrease in edit distance (number of clicks).
The underlying logic to interpret, structure and apply customer brand colors are now powering all Brand Engine surface areas across Mailchimp and QuickBooks.