I designed projects for Willis for nearly 15 years. When I started, they were called Betts Cadillac Lexus. I saw the addition of many vehicle lines, and eventually helped rebrand them into Willis Auto Campus. They now represent 7 lines of vehicles, all with their own identity and set of visual branding guidelines. Everyone involved agreed that we needed to establish a separate Willis brand that could work along side a vehicle brand, but also function completely on its own. Who was Willis, apart from just the vehicles they sold? "The Willis Difference" was created as a long-standing tagline to help promote their well-known customer service, involvement in the community, and their complete offering of departments such as accessories.
It started with the logo. The client's request was to use the look, feel, and colors of the previous Betts script and create a new but already familiar logo for Willis Auto Campus. Using warm colors and incorporating people (not just vehicles) into the designs, we applied a new brand look across every customer touchpoint. Signage, websites, emails, point of purchase, print ads, online ads, event sponsorships, social media, newsletters, and more. The open road background image and coordinating "swoosh" lines were used whenever possible and became a staple of the new Willis identity.
It's hard for me to sum up or represent a sample of the projects I've done for Willis. The variety has been incredible. In addition to advertising for Willis Auto Campus, we advertised across all media for individual vehicle brands. Each of them came with a very strict set of rules, and the challenge became how to make a print ad follow the Cadillac/Infiniti/MINI/etc guidelines, yet be tagged with a Willis branded footer, and have it pass approvals from all involved parties. We did postcards, program ads, vehicle wraps, billboards and large wall graphics, web graphics, invitations, and promoted sales events. One project that was unique each year was an invitation to the annual Willis New Car Show. There was always a theme for the event, requiring a themed invitation. One of my favorites was a vintage travel theme, which required me to do some digital illustration.
So. Many. Vehicle. Wraps. But every one was different. Willis has great success in using its inventory as moving billboards. Sometimes it's done for self promotion, sometimes it's meant to be put on display at a sponsored community event, and sometimes it's to promote a partnership with Des Moines Performing Arts. The challenge in this type of project is taking the size/shape of a particular vehicle and figuring out how to apply either original designs or strictly controlled Broadway graphics to fit around obstacles like door handles. Over the years we have wrapped MINIs with marathon runners, a huge slice of bacon, and even in Andy Warhol style artwork.
