sofia toso - Raising awareness of Firestone's heritage with a webapp

Raising awareness of Firestone's racing heritage in Europe with a web app

2018 @Springbok agency UX/UI and Visual Design

The Indy 500 is regarded as the 'Greatest Spectacle in Racing .' It's a must-see event for all racing fans, but it's not so popular in Europe. To help Firestone bring European fans closer to the event, the agency was tasked to create a digital campaign that would engage with young European audiences.

My role
Lead UX/UI and Visual Designer

The team
Motion Designer, UX Designer - Visual Designer, Art Director, Social Media Specialist, Account Manager
External development agency for implementation

The timeframe
Design: 2 weeks
Implementation: 2 weeks

The challenge

Traditional sports have a hard time connecting with younger audiences on social media, primarily when the main events are held in another country. We were challenged to create an ephemeral digital product that would include:

• A unique visual identity that can extend to ads and social media. It had to match Firestone's look and feel but separate itself enough to be understood as a temporary campaign.
• A web solution for mobile primarily but, considering desktop as a secondary source of traffic, it had to feel app-like
• Engaging enough to create leads despite the new GDPR
• Highly shareable and easy to use even for older audiences (the secondary persona)

My role

I was the lead visual and UX UI designer in this project, responsible for the look and feel, branding, storyboarding, concept, user flows, wireframing, and prototypes. We were aware of the targeted audiences, so I used that information to create the personas and design an experience that would fit their needs and delight them. I worked closely with a motion designer and the account art director.

The solution

"The best way to connect with these fans was to bring Firestone's racing history to life."

That concept was part of the brief. The first step from me was to build a brand system that could translate easily in video, ads, responsive web and social media. It had to show Firestone's legacy while being impactful. I used vintage components as support and emojis to contrast the old and the new.

Brand elements

For the digital solution, we looked at the popular boomerangs and wanted to harness that medium. Together with a library of images and old racing videos we received from Firestone, we created a boomerang-like game, that mimicked Instagram stories with an element of joy: a fun questions and answers game. I included a countdown to activate a sense of urgency but used stickers and racing elements to make it feel more inviting and light-hearted. Did I mention you could win a trip to the actual Indy 500 race? So a lot was at stake! We wanted users to share and repeat the experience to get more chances to win, showing a different set of questions every time. Interactive ads and social media campaigns fed the web app's traffic.