uLab Systems is a global clear aligner platform for orthodontists to provide tooth movement and alignment. They have a lot of flexibility in treatment planning and fulfillment that other platforms don’t offer–but that value proposition can be hard to explain in a complex industry.

The Challenge

“We have a very complicated value proposition, so it was a challenge to get across the main points that we needed to. The visuals helped people finally “get it.”

Johanna Beckmen, Senior Marketing Director for uLab Systems

uLab was in the midst of a transition to a new, digital, A.I.-powered offering for their customers, and they needed to help explain how it works and why it’s so much better than the competition.

Johanna Beckmen and the Marketing team came to Ink Factory with the goal of creating visuals that could help them:

1. Tell their vision for the future in an engaging way in front of their live conference audience, without being cheesy or boring
2. Launch a consistent vision of their digital office to be used across all marketing collateral to help explain their value proposition to potential clients

The Solution

Our process is designed to pull out the most important, relevant content from our client’s inputs, to make sure their message comes across clearly and effectively. Johanna noted that the Ink Factory process helped them to take a step back and think through the content to make the end product as valuable as possible for their team.

We worked with uLab’s team to create a visual library: an illustrated collection of images to be used across their marketing spectrum. These are spot illustrations that the uLab team can leverage at any scale, and combine in different ways depending on their needs.

We made the illustrations leading up to the American Association of Orthodontists Annual Session conference, where uLab’s new marketing look made its debut. We illustrated all the different components of the platform that resonate with orthodontists, to be used prior to, during, and after the event.

The uLab team put a lot of effort into creating a consistent and strong identity throughout the conference; from their trade show booth to rep shoes, to vans, to t-shirts, everything had a uLab approachable and fun vibe.

“We got compliment after compliment on the booth graphics, the forum content, and the vision we were outlining.”

Johanna Beckmen, Senior Marketing Director for uLab Systems

Ink Factory’s hand-drawn style also helped uLab stand out both at the conference, and from their industry peers in general.

“It was so different from what everyone else in our industry is doing. Every single booth shows beautiful photos of people with beautiful smiles. There’s not a lot of variety in the marketing, which is ok, but we wanted to do something really different, and we found that the drawings were much more approachable and fun.”

Johanna Beckmen, Senior Marketing Director for uLab Systems

At the conference, a visual note-taker was also present to create live visual notes of the day’s presentations. The uLab team connected the live visual notes to their new marketing spot imagery to continue that value proposition and reinforce it among their audience.

The Result

uLab’s team understands the value of investing in visual notes–and that includes making the most of them outside of just one event. The uLab team was able to leverage the visual library we created for them not just in the trade show booth and materials printed for the conference, but also on social media, swag, brochures, and ads both before and after the event.

“We’ve been getting a lot of positive engagement on anything we post with the visuals. We find the content to be very shareable.”

Riley Burg, uLab Systems

Overall, uLab has found that not only have the visuals streamlined their message, make their content easier to explain, and helped them stand out from the competition, but it ultimately helped them make the transition from their past offerings into the future.

“The visuals really helped our customer base notice our new digital platform offering, helping to change perceptions of uLab from an aligner and software company to a digital platform company.”

Amy Shimmick, uLab Systems

Booth photos provided courtesy of uLab Systems.