Challenge

A global direct selling powerhouse with more than $9 billion in revenue, Amway is committed to finding new ways to support, educate, and energize its more than three million distributors around the world. In doing so, the company’s Digital and Experiential Marketing Services team is charged with bringing Amway’s brand strategies and business opportunities to life through existing and emerging technologies.

In order to spotlight the digital tools that can help Amway achieve its business goals in the 80-plus countries where it does business, the company set out to build dynamic iPad applications that would inform and excite people–both internally and externally–about the potential that digital technologies hold for the future.

Impressed by Universal Mind’s portfolio, Amway asked the agency to build a tool – within a very tight timeframe – that would effectively showcase the depth and breadth of services Amway’s digital team could provide. Targeting its annual global leadership conference attendees, Amway also asked Universal Mind to inspire and — frankly – impress the company’s executives and sales and marketing leadership teams around the world. In this case, Amway gave Universal Mind the freedom to develop next-generation, highly engaging proof of concept experiences for Artistry Skincare and Cosmetics, its premium cosmetics brand, and Nutrilite, its line of vitamins and dietary supplements.

“Our goal was to create exciting experiences that went beyond ‘business as usual,’” said Digital Marketing Lead, J.D. Collins. “We wanted to capture distributors’ and customers’ imaginations and directly benefit our bottom line.”

Process

With all three projects, Universal Mind started with Discovery, sitting down with Amway to gain a thorough understanding of business objectives and target audiences in order to select the most appropriate technologies and delivery mechanisms.

For the project targeting internal leadership, Universal Mind proposed creating a rich, easy-to-update, interactive portfolio accessible via Amway’s intranet and employees’ own desktops. The portfolio would incorporate videos and images to showcase the digital team’s capabilities, and it would allow employees to select service packages to inform the budget process.

For Artistry, Universal Mind proposed creating a highly interactive and user-friendly iPad app that would showcase the Artistry seasonal colour collection and included trends, useful tips, and videos. The e-publication would highlight seasonal trends – the inspiration behind the colour collection – and would guide distributors/customers in choosing and applying the colour collection for individual clients. Ultimately, the app would make it easier for the distributor to make a sale. The app, built like a digital magazine with visually rich content, would help any Artistry customer achieve great makeup looks tailored to her preferences.

To support the Nutrilite brand, Universal Mind proposed a competitive memory game app for iPads and iPhones. The fun, fresh, viral app would energize distributors and give Amway’s Nutrilite products – particularly its Nutrilite Memory Builder – a high degree of visibility on users’ devices. Developed in a flexible format that enabled it to work on multiple platforms, the memory game would appeal to people’s competitive nature in a highly sharable and “memorable” way.

All three ideas were given an enthusiastic green light, so Universal Mind created wireframes of the experiences and mapped out the overall architecture before moving into design. This process included the creation of visual storyboards that adhered to Amway’s brand guidelines, yet pushed the look toward a sleeker, more modern feel. Finally, Universal Mind engineers began the development that would breathe life into the experiences with transition choreography and other interactions.

Despite a fast-track schedule, Universal Mind pushed beyond expectations to deliver standout user experiences. “Universal Mind was so great and easy to work with,” says Collins. “Their technology expertise is essential, but their creativity was equally critical to the success of this project.”

Results

The digital experiences were successful across the board and delivered on the objectives. The interactive portfolio effectively promoted Amway’s capabilities in the space and facilitated more streamlined internal communications. And the proofs of concept were huge wins, both in demonstrating the value the digital team brings to the company and in elevating the Amway brand. Amway has commissioned Universal Mind to build finished sales tools from both proofs of concept.

“Our leadership wanted the Artistry app loaded onto their iPads as soon as they saw it, and executives realized that it offers our distributors a foolproof and fun way to sell the cosmetics line,” says Collins. “It showcases Amway in a modern way using the latest technology.”

The Artistry sales tool will become a platform for ongoing digital publication of the latest skincare products, cosmetics collections, tips, and techniques.
Per its affiliates’ request, Amway has decided to make the Artistry and Nutrilite apps available worldwide via the Apple App Store. Affiliates see the value in both apps as avenues to increased revenues, and Universal Mind is currently completing development on customized versions for Thailand, New Zealand, and Australia, where half of new Amway business owners are under the age of 30. This approach is consistent with Amway’s desire to develop globally but implement locally, maintaining brand consistency yet communicating in ways that embrace local cultures.

In addition, the two companies are partnering on a number of new initiatives, with Universal Mind helping Amway think differently about its digital marketing. In one example, Universal Mind has encouraged Amway to take a more holistic look at its digital asset creation process, and to maximize ROI by planning photo and video shoots with an eye toward extending assets for use in digital solutions.

“Like many corporations, Amway wanted a partner to help them strategize around business opportunities with new devices and media,” says Erik Loehfelm, Executive Director of User Experience Design at Universal Mind. “We look forward to a fruitful creative partnership that supports Amway’s mission to help people live better lives.”