Strategic approach
A key to the campaign's success was the creative team’s decision to fully embrace and strategically leverage O'Reilly's iconic visual asset—the colorized animal engravings that have been synonymous with its signature book series for nearly 50 years. By building on the animals' association with trusted technical content, the campaign elevated them into a powerful brand symbol extending far beyond the books.
The campaign also incorporated customer success testimonials, featuring in-studio interviews with platform users. These testimonials added authenticity, relatability, and trust to the brand narrative.
Strategic pillars
Message refinement
Highlighted O'Reilly’s value in upskilling tech professionals with a clear, practical proposition.
Visual refinement
Modernized visuals to reflect innovation and differentiate from competitors.
Localized content
Tailored messaging for regions like Scandinavia and India, using cultural nuances and local success stories.
Innovative formats
Launched interactive ads and short-form videos, cinemagraphs, and native ads on social media to actively engage users.
You know these animals.
Now, meet the brand behind them.
Between 2021 and 2024, O’Reilly Media’s marketing team ran a focused campaign to boost awareness of their tech learning platform, which supports both technical and soft skill development. Targeting B2B audiences, the campaign emphasized the value of a well-rounded skill set for organizational success. This case study explores the creative strategies that drove impactful results.
The challenge
In 2021, O'Reilly Media struggled with low brand awareness compared to competitors. A May 2021 study revealed:
Aided awareness
Only 22%, trailing LinkedIn Learning (60%) and Coursera (47%).
Unaided awareness
Less than 1%, due to limited consumer advertising.
Awareness vs. usage gap
Awareness wasn't translating into platform adoption.
My role
As marketing design director, I led the development and execution of a cohesive visual strategy that aligned with campaign goals. Collaborating with leadership and a cross-functional creative team, I oversaw visual direction across TV, digital, and microsites. We iterated based on performance data, refining creative for impact. The creative director and I also shaped audio integration—lending both strategic input and our voices to the final assets.
Team
Concepting / creative strategy
Ellie V, Todd Stephany, Keith Thompson, Kenn Vondrak
Art direction
Kenn Vondrak, Ellie V
Design / animation
Ellie V, Kenn Vondrak, Drew Barton, Tiffany Truong, Alec Creighton, Karen Montgomery
Video production
Keith Thompson, Sweet Spot Media
Sound design / voice-over
Ellie V, Todd Stephany, Keith Thompson, Sweet Spot Media
Impact
Key takeaways
Storytelling, visual creativity, and regional customization were critical to success, demonstrating the power of audience-focused strategies.
Brand awareness growth
Aided brand awareness rose from 22% in 2021 to 42% in 2024, driven by O'Reilly’s iconic animal engravings, relatable storytelling, and customer testimonials.
Interactive formats win
Experimenting with engaging, dynamic ad formats boosted engagement by 25% compared to static ads, proving effective with tech-savvy audiences.
How we did it, year by year
2021 campaign
In 2021, with in-studio production off the table, O’Reilly faced a defining creative challenge: how to build brand awareness without traditional tools. Rising to the moment, we reimagined our iconic animal engravings as animated brand ambassadors and launched our first large-scale TV campaign—designed, storyboarded, and produced entirely in-house.
To extend the campaign’s reach, we built rich media banners, landing pages, and interactive ad units that visually bridged O’Reilly’s legacy in publishing with its evolution into a cutting-edge learning platform.
Initial storyboard
My design team collaborated with copy, video, and design to define the look and feel, establish goals for the spot, and shape the sound. Together, we developed a rough storyboard for the script, brainstorming details like transitions and the execution of supers to ensure a cohesive and engaging visual flow.
Polished storyboard
Building on the rough storyboard, we developed a polished version to present to the executive team. The refined storyboard defined the visual style and outlined the flow of the spot with the animals incorporated. It provided a clear blueprint for the final production, aligning creative decisions with the project’s goals.
The story comes to life
Leveraging the animated engraved animals developed in our creative lab, we crafted a dynamic TV spot that combined our animated illustrations with footage of experts and our learning platform in action. Supers in our signature gradients, carefully selected music, and both male and female voice-over options tied everything together.
Additionally, we developed a mnemonic to accompany our animated logo, which has since been used as a tag across all videos. This multisensory approach reinforced our brand identity, making it more memorable for our audience.
The spot delivered nearly 60 million impressions to tech and L&D leaders.
Rich media and landing pages
We used our signature animals in still and animated banner ads to connect the animals in our tech books with our learning platform. A paper tear reveals the vibrant colorized animals beneath the black and white originals, highlighting O'Reilly's evolution from traditional roots to modern user needs.
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