Tailored audience engagement demanded quality over quantity.

Autodesk asked for our help to grow awareness of emerging design and manufacturing technologies – with a particular focus on generative design and additive manufacturing. They were, however, highly selective about their audience. The targets would be senior executives in major corporates within the Tech, Automotive and Space sectors. 

As top-tier Autodesk clients, they’re entitled to 1:1 support from an Autodesk expert consultant. However, in order to make use of this service, they needed to know about it. With huge buying power and limited time for engaging with marketers, our first challenge was to get any kind of messaging in front of them. Then once we’d successfully attracted their attention, our second was to motivate them to act, and initiate a technical conversation about generative design.

Employing strategic thinking to achieve our goal.

For this niche audience, we didn’t believe digital, emails or letters would achieve the impact or cut-through required. Digital didn’t feel personal enough, but we also had to consider that these people may have assistants filtering what they see. Our solution needed to bypass Pas, capture the executives’ attention, and open them up to a conversation by demonstrating how much Autodesk valued them. 

Our solution involved designing and crafting a prestigious, high-value direct mail piece with a personalised brochure for each contact. To build intrigue, we included a unique 3D-printed model plane, while a built-in screen was added to play a video case study about Autodesk advanced manufacturing. 

The innovative aviation case study used generative design to create an interior wall within the plane. This was optimised for material and weight efficiency, with comparable strength characteristics. Of course, this was our inspiration for including the model plane and it served as a great motivator for our audience to watch the video – earning themselves an explanation for this unusual addition (it was a scale replica of the concept plane for 2050).

How it all came together.

We invested a lot of time and thought to ensure the packaging looked and felt the part. It needed to be a prestigious item worthy of their attention. The size was selected for stand-out appeal, and we used bubble envelopes with various layers of wrapping to make it a little more mysterious. 

Once opened, the mailer was very tactile with a premium finish. We put a UV gloss on the box with a pattern you couldn’t quite see until you felt it. Accompanying our copy, as a virtual introduction to their assigned Autodesk contact, was a photo and the direct email address of their respective consultant. To follow this up, Autodesk sent out a triggered email a month later, to check in and prompt the target to get in touch. 

With just 45 mailers produced, this was intentionally a highly targeted campaign which aimed to simply open doors and push through a select few high-value deals.