Launch Partner for the World's First Electric Adventure Vehicle
Rivian was in the final stages of vehicle pre-launch of the world's first electric adventure vehicle. It had several different launch plans including celebrity ambassadors, PR releases, launch events, a website and a big reveal at the 2019 LA Auto Show.
In preparation for the reveal, Code and Theory architected, designed and developed a PDP and pre-order experience.
1
The Challenge
Prior to the official vehicle release, there were no images of Rivian's products for Code and Theory to use. Rivian was still in its final stages of product refinement so we had to design the site before actually knowing what the vehicles would look like.
As part of such a highly anticipated launch, several agency teams were onboarded to develop content. Partnering and creating a cohesive experience throughout all consumer touchpoints was crucial to the success of this project.
All creative assets needed for the site had to be developed just prior to the launch which heavily impacted the work required leading up to the moment of the big reveal.
2
The Solution
Code and Theory started off its partnership with Rivian at an in-person onboarding and factory tour. The tour allowed us to dig deeper into the making of the vehicles and experience the materials used for inspiration. We worked with the agency partners to understand how their efforts would bleed into ours and vice versa. Our goal at the time was to architect a site that had the full brand ecosystem in mind.
Our design team not only audited innovative brands but also tools to showcase vehicles. In doing so we were able to break the mold in designing an automotive site that doesn't feel stale or dated in an industry that easily can.
By connecting users with relevant content and paying attention to the way that we serve it, we’re able to inspire and educate potential consumers.
Ultimately, the Rivian brand is aspirational at its core and we wanted that to be felt in the digital experience.
3
The Technology
Our work with Rivian presented a number of technological challenges—chief among them the fact that the client was using a platform with limited internal access, significantly hampering their own level of creative control.
This problem had to be solved under real limitations: with a short turnaround time and a limited budget, it was important to strategize with the client to determine what tech would yield the most impact while ensuring a safe, problem-free launch.
In the end, we built an external system to complement the existing site experience, while offering the client full control over content and presentation moving forward. We landed on WordPress as a simple but flexible CMS, while incorporating Shopify templates for a fast, effective launch without the burden of an intensive and complex e-commerce implementation. The WordPress instance lived side-by-side with the existing Rivian site, offering internal ease-of-use and a positive user experience without requiring total integration. Meanwhile, leveraging Shopify's JavaScript and CSS configuration capabilities, we built a customized preorder flow that was ready, reliable, and stable come launch day.
Technology Used:
4
The Results
As of April 1, 2019 the Rivian website has tallied an impressive number of users, page views and preorders—a testament to the swiftly-made, intuitive and stable experience we worked with the client to build:
- 1.2M users on Rivian.com
- 1.8M pageviews on Truck PDP
- 1.1M SUV PDP
- 372K people have hit the preorder CTA
- 3,670 orders
- $3.7M in revenue
