Series of brochures and interactive experiences clearly “show” complex value message

Working in collaboration with AT&T, XPLANE | Dachis Group created series of visual communication tools designed to clearly showcase mobility solutions for businesses.

Challenge | When people consider wireless mobility offerings, they immediately think of voice and messaging services. However, the wireless functionality that AT&T offers businesses goes far beyond those traditional aspects to include networking, devices, mobile applications, hosted services and customer support. The company wanted a way to clearly and quickly show potential clients all the ways AT&T can help their businesses. After hearing the feedback that the value proposition was too complicated to grasp when explained verbally, AT&T’s consultants adopted a “Show Me, Don’t Tell Me” approach that focused on communicating the message through pictures. Recognizing that this method had real potential, AT&T wanted to take it a step further with a strategic partner, specialized in visual communication.

Action | As a test, AT&T decided to have XPLANE create one brochure. Given the nature of AT&T’s distributed teams, the two organizations held a virtual discovery session over the phone, led by an XPLANE consultant and featuring live sketching from an XPLANE designer via online collaboration tools. Given that this was the first brochure, many people were involved from AT&T’s side and it took some time for all parties to fully understand XPLANE’s unique, creative approach. To aid this adjustment XPLANE shifted its process slightly midway through in order to create greater alignment amongst all constituents. A successful completion of the first brochure paved the way for additional pieces to be developed.

The collaborative process between AT&T and XPLANE changed slightly on the subsequent brochures. Instead of including the larger group on each project, the subject matter expert for that particular vertical worked in partnership with XPLANE with as-needed oversight from the director of marketing. This adjustment was made easier in large part because of the visual nature of the first brochure. Having a clear model of what the subsequent teams were striving to emulate made the process go that much more smoothly.

AT&T also decided to broaden the reach of the visual communication pieces by creating interactive experiences based on the print brochures. Given obvious differences between print and online communication, the interactive pieces explain the mobility services for the particular vertical in phases, versus presenting them in one overarching visual.

Results | To date, XPLANE has created 10 print brochures for AT&T (also available in electronic format), with eight more in development, and three interactive experiences. Targeted vertical markets include construction, retail, automotive, petrochemical, healthcare, education, pharmaceutical, DMS, government and insurance investments and banking. Each brochure is distributed to AT&T’s sales segment leads who then share them with their individual teams. Sales consultants can print and order more copies of the piece as demand dictates. Each interactive experience is available on the AT&T Web site (here’s the retail example).

In addition to facilitating discussion in sales meetings the brochures also serve as a compelling leave-behind, easily reinforcing and communicating the key messages in a complex value proposition.

“I am a firm believer that simple, relevant visual communication tools create understanding of complicated, and oftentimes confusing, business topics. I look forward to keeping AT&T at the forefront of leveraging new, and highly-innovative, visual communication techniques.”
—Michael Lattanzi, director, marketing communications, AT&T