CHALLENGES

1. Our team was building custom emails from scratch for activations across multiple Mattel brands, at volumes higher than any of our other partners.

2. Our emails were non-responsive, despite 62-64% of email openings coming from mobile devices.  

3. Interfaces were not standardized across all brands, negatively impacting the user experience of Families with multiple subscriptions.

APPROACH

1. Program assessment

2. Identify structural commonalities

3. Wireframe all possible content areas

4. Visual design of modular library

5. Code and document solution

RESEARCH

We studied common pattern across multiple Mattel emails and investigated measurable impacts of mobile-optimized sends from our other clients. 

FINDINGS

Among our 50 biggest senders, those with consistent mobile aware or responsive design had an average 4x greater click-through rate. All Mattel sends had similar information hierarchies specific to whichever brand they were coming from. Customers could expect similar structures and relied on consistent placements of cycled information. 

SOLUTION

A digital library of modules for each brand, standardized for things like hero images, reduced prices on products, and local event notifications. Treating elements such as headlines, body copy, and CTAs consistently would streamline production by cutting out approval rounds and redundant QA sessions. Additionally, building responsive emails utilizing live text could lead to an increase in mobile click-throughs to online stores.

RESULTS

Sends built from our responsive library saw a 65% increase in open rates with a 34% increase in click through rates. Optimized campaign operational processes by reducing rounds of proofs for each send. Other teams adopted the design system for use in other client builds, evolving our design process and reducing build hours.