With a new strategic plan, record-setting Broadway smashes on the way and the region’s most anticipated new venue set to open, they wanted to show Kentucky that they were bigger than their iconic building on Main Street in Downtown Louisville. But their website and brand couldn’t support where they were going.

First, Kentucky Center partnered with VIA Studio to 

 and rename themselves to Kentucky Performing Arts. And then we started on the project at hand: designing and developing a website that not only tells their growing story, but provides a best-in-class ticketing experience for all users.

Visit The Site

Aside from setting a visual identity for KPA, 

 has very discrete needs: functionally serving their audiences. This required a design system that serves the brand and works for everyone.

In creating a design system, and to provide venue-specific visual cues, the UI reflected the venue color system if the user is interacting with something venue specific, the UI would follow that look and feel. Cohesive, yet able to stand alone.

Kentucky Performing Arts is constantly in motion - adding new shows and programs - and they needed a content design system that allowed them to easily add new content while maintaining the mobile-first attitude that their audience demands.

To achieve this, we designed a material-design-inspired UI system of cards and containers that provided the building blocks for any content and structure KPA would need now and into the future.

 is to sell tickets to performances. Ticket purchasing on its face is a relatively straightforward challenge - however, there have been recent and dramatic shifts in consumer expectations and behavior. Most notably the expectation to be able to “Select Your Own Seat” (SYOS) and the rapidly increasing percentage of consumers who use a mobile device to complete their purchase.

Working in deep partnership with KPA’s ticketing team, we analyzed the competitive market and best-in-class ticketing experiences to design and develop a ticket selection system that met KPA’s status as a top-tier arts organization.

Ensuring a quick, responsive user experience is a critical component to accessibility and good design. To achieve this, we needed a technology stack that was going to be developer-friendly while letting us build an application that was highly responsive to user interactions. After careful consideration, we landed on ReactJS to build out the ticketing applications.

The Ticketing App + ReactJS

Choosing the right tools

"[VIA Studio] had a number of outstanding professionals that really cared about our organization, their work, and what this could mean for the future of our community."

Websites

Web Design

Ecommerce

UX / UI

User Experience

Kentucky Performing Arts Website

After it’s crushing success as “one of the most successful Indiegogo projects of all time”, FirstBuild’s Opal Nugget Ice machine has made it’s way to tens of thousands of households through traditional e-commerce, Amazon (and Prime Day), and traditional in-store sales – and we helped make that happen.

Beginning in the Summer of 2015, VIA Studio was the strategic marketing partner for FirstBuild, the unique consumer product incubator located here in Louisville, Kentucky. (And while the Opal was our first project with FirstBuild – it certainly hasn’t been the only one.

With the exception of actually building and shipping the Opal to your home, we were involved with almost every facet of marketing and selling the Opal at FirstBuild.

The story of FirstBuild, and any FirstBuild product is one of constant evolution, change, and maturation. We contributed to Opal’s success with the following:

Post-Crowdfunding Sales and Marketing Strategy

Digital Marketing Campaign Development and Management

In-Depth Marketing and Web Analytics and Reporting

Add-On Product Marketing, Sales, and Advertising

In 2015 and into 2016, as we translated FirstBuild’s nascent branding into the digital realm, we worked to boost their already eye-watering sales into the stratosphere with comprehensive digital marketing and landing pages – managing hundreds of thousands of dollars in ad spend to drive sales.

A great product demands great visuals, and we worked with FirstBuild to define the guidelines, concept, plan, and shoot all principal photography of the FirstBuild Opal Nugget Ice machine, culminating in a bank of photographic assets that would power a vast array of marketing efforts.

Traditional and Non-Traditional Advertising

What is traditional any more? For us, traditional is digital, but as we move to expand our audience and present up-and-coming products as contenders against long-standing “traditional” products, we must have a multi-faceted approach.

In 2018, we conceived, shot, and launched a pair of FirstBuild Opal commercials, focused on families and adults:

A Southwest Airlines ad for Opal launched in the fall of 2018

Crowdfunding Management and Logistics Support

In late 2016, with Opal nearing it’s ship-date, we worked closely with FirstBuild to help them manage their crowdfunding communications through contact management system (CMS) management and integration with both InfusionSoft and Mailchimp, and developed address verification processes and tools to aid in the timely and accurate fulfillment of a product that was ordered by most consumers 12 months prior. 

Consumer-Focused Audience Research and Targeting

As Opal’s audience grew and matured, we were on the forefront working to ensure that we were finding and talking to the right people at the right time. Moving from the tech-savvy, early-adopting crowdfunders to your everyday consumer is a dramatic shift, and requires great care to continue to build your audience.

With utmost regard for our consumer audience, we work with marketing and data partners like Facebook, Google, TowerData, Mailchimp, and others to understand all we can about our current and prospective consumers, and to work to focus on targeting consumers that want to hear our message.

FirstBuild (like VIA) is constantly looking to improve – and we know the only way to do that is by constantly researching, observing, and analyzing all measurable facets of our marketing. We are responsible for developing a sophisticated marketing dashboard for Opal that is able to track the true return on of their marketing dollars in real-time.

In addition, we provided FirstBuild with regular, data-rich reporting, and in-depth analysis of the Opal’s ecosystem.

It could be said that while advertising gets them to turn their heads, it’s the email marketing that keeps them engaged. Over the past five years, we’ve worked with FirstBuild to continue to engage their Opal consumers, from post-purchase to accessory and repeat sales by defining and designing all aspects of email communications for Opal, including voice and tone development, copywriting, email design, asset development – and even real-time order tracking in your inbox with Narvar.

Opal might just be the perfect Amazon Prime Day purchase – an amazing “gotta have that” device that you didn’t know you needed until you saw it. Working with FirstBuild and GE Appliances, we developed original content for their Amazon listings and social media for overall awareness.

With the FirstBuild Opal shipping to its original backers and on-the-shelf inventory ready to ship, we partnered again with FirstBuild and GE Appliances to help make “The Good Ice” a “thing”. We did this by expanding the Opal Nugget Ice brand to lean into the hugely passionate nugget ice fanbase (you know, the ones driving to Sonic every day) and creating new and engaging content:

After 5 years of crowd-funded excitement, the FirstBuild Opal graduated to GE Profile, becoming the 

. Like a proud parent, we are sad to see it grow up, but are so glad it exists in this world!

Are you and your product in need of comprehensive marketing strategy, creative services, and in-depth development to sell your product? We can help.

Contact Us

Marketing Campaigns

Social Media & Audience Development

Opal Nugget Ice Machine

Our highly-experienced development team handles all software development, from websites to apps to systems integrations, using the right platform and language that meets the challenge.

Development

Development: Case Studies

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Kentucky Performing Arts Website

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Opal Nugget Ice Machine

Development: Blog Posts

Kentucky Performing Arts Website

Opal Nugget Ice Machine