AudioEye kept getting mistaken for the thing it was built to replace.
How I turned AudioEye's biggest marketing investment of the year into a campaign that challenged how the accessibility community saw the brand.
Mistaken for an overlay
AudioEye pairs automated fixes with accessibility experts who manually test and resolve what automation cannot. That puts it outside the market’s two dominant categories: automation-only overlays and consultant-only audits. But because AudioEye uses automation at all, it kept getting grouped with overlays and dismissed as a surface-level fix, undercutting its position as a category leader.
More detail about our testing process wasn’t changing that. People had already decided what AudioEye was.
One typeface, a full system
The visual system was a team effort, anchored by the typeface Turnip, whose organic, imperfect letterforms pointed us toward a linocut illustration style. We built an original library of modular vegetable illustrations and carried the concept across banners, decks, print, stickers, landing pages, and motion.
Overlay, Underdeliver
The sharpest piece in the system was the smallest. A sticker reading “Overlay, Underdeliver” named the category AudioEye was confused with, and its failure, in three words. People carried it around the conference floor for four days, and it did more perception work than anything else we made.
“We're currently at CSUN, and I can’t tell you how many conversations I have had about the ‘Overlay, Underdeliver’ sticker. It’s been the easiest lead-in to conversations that have helped change perception around AudioEye.”
— Monterey Thompson, VP of Product, AudioEye
Selling the reframe internally
I led brand strategy and messaging, and the harder sell was internal. The budget was already approved, so I pitched on scope, positioning CSUN as a campaign platform instead of a program ad and asking leadership to trust an unconventional creative direction for the company’s largest conference presence. It was also our first test of out-of-home activation, and a half-built version would have taught us nothing.
From there, I directed the full visual system with Allyson Konz as design lead, across a five-person team spanning brand design, UI, motion, and communications.
A standing-room-only debut
AudioEye’s first hosted session was standing-room-only, and attendees cited Tend to Thrive as what finally clarified the difference between AudioEye and an overlay. It was the only accessibility solution at CSUN with a fully developed campaign theme. At the CSUN Board dinner, the sponsorship suite and theme were singled out for praise, as relayed by our Chief Accessibility Officer.
Where I’d add measurement
We set the goal as perception shift instead of lead generation, which was the right call but harder to prove, and I didn’t instrument it. A packed session, board praise, and team-reported conversations are real evidence, but they aren't measurement.
Next time, I’d run a short perception survey before and after, even an informal one at the booth, so the campaign's central claim had a number behind it.
Facts don't fix a frame
Once people decide what something is, more facts won’t move them. A new frame gives them somewhere to put the facts.
The team
Brand Strategy & Creative Direction | Sojin Rank |
Accessibility SME | Alisa Smith |
Marketing Content Lead | Mike Barton |
Design Lead | |
UI/UX Design | |
Motion Design |