ELECTROLUX
Achieving quality at scale for the consumer electronics industry
Shaping living for the better
Swedish brand, Electrolux, has evolved from their start as an appliance brand in 1919 to one of the most distinct and premium brands in the home space. Proud of its heritage, Electrolux’s thoughtfully designed kitchen, laundry and vacuum products are the result of continuous investment in consumer research to develop strong product line-ups. The brand encompasses its premium German counterpart, AEG, as well as the first cooler brand, Frigidaire, amongst others. All of which account for over 60 million household and professional products sold in more than 150 markets every year.
Scalable marketing content
As a proud brand, it goes without saying that they appreciate showing the meticulous design and work that goes into their products. When we first partnered up, Electrolux’s long-term goal was to use entirely digital assets across their sales and marketing channels — to make photography obsolete once and for all. Like so many similar companies, they struggled with preparing all the marketing materials in time for the launch of new product lines and finding solutions that scale. So, the first step was to establish a strong basis from which to start creating accurate digital replicas of their actual products.
Starting with their Small Appliances global business group, we initiated a CG rendering process on an industrial scale for a full product line. Working with 3D as the basis for everything cuts time-to-market in half, so Electrolux designers have more time to create and prototype. Not long after this initial success, the EMEA Major Appliances team followed. Northern America and Asia Pacific joined in later as well, including coverage for the AEG and Frigidaire brands.
World of possibilities
In the course of our partnership Electrolux selected us as key suppliers for animations. The production for these involves delivering many videos and feature-benefit animations. A problem Electrolux often encountered was having to re-do expensive video shoots when new models, ranges or colors were introduced to a market. By replacing a product with a CG version within a video, we were able to avoid expensive re-shoots and produce model and color variations at an affordable level.
A natural extension of this way of working has been to cover localisation, updates, derivative devices as well as unpacking experiences, all in CG. With the basis in place, we started to further explore the potential of computer generated assets. It turned out there were almost literally endless possibilities for both interactive applications and other forms of rich content.
Impactful product experiences
Working alongside Electrolux in-house teams and agencies, we began applying the 3D assets in new and interesting contexts. Like interactive components embedded within retailer websites, leveraging our product experience software framework (PEX). This helps brands create rich product detail pages very fast.
Together we are capturing data from PEX framework, which is deployed within many retailers across Europe. This allows for new and deeper insights that can optimize assets for exact moments in the purchase journey.
Future of CG
After so many years into our partnership with Electrolux, our focus has shifted from supporting with CG content solutions to becoming a trusted partner. And in lieu of Electrolux’s recent brand and visual identity refresh, we have taken it a step further in terms of where CG animations can go. To reflect the lifestyle imagery and brand Electrolux is today, we had to come closer to visually matching 3D imagery to regular lifestyle videos, blending everything together smoother.
What began with images based on a digital product replica for one department extended to many departments and includes nowadays using our own CG technology. Electrolux has in this way increased efficiency on a global scale. Together, we are dedicated to continuous refinement and improvement in terms of quality, efficiency and turnaround time. We’ve also set up the established base elements for CGI at scale, such as a library of on-brand Electrolux specific virtual environments and props.
The beauty of having whole portfolios visualised in this manner allows us to continually think of ways to apply and re-apply digital product replicas in new and engaging contexts. Whether it’s exploring options in augmented reality, configurators or in-store ideas, the future will certainly see enhanced brand communication beyond anything we have experienced until now.
