Trust the Process Campaign
& Trade Show

A 360 campaign and sales experience.

Build a refreshed and improved trade show campaign for Houzz Pro at the largest trade show for home professionals in North America.

The Solution

Houzz returned to the 2023 International Builders Show (IBS) and Kitchen & Bath International Show (KBIS) with a fresh campaign promoting our project management software, Houzz Pro. As part of the Trust the Process Campaign, the main goal was to entice home renovation professionals to purchase our project management software, Houzz Pro. However, we also aimed to educate the home renovation community on the benefits of Houzz Pro software, which can greatly enhance their working process and improve efficiency for both them and their clients.

To achieve this, we decided to not only update our visual system to showcase our new and user-friendly features, but also revamp our activations, panels, and communication methods with our valued home professionals. This meant creating a 360 experience that also included more emails, social media, and a new landing page.

The Campaign Process
The Campaign Process

The Deliverables

Booth Refresh,
Brand Video,
Informational Events Landing Page,
Marketing Materials,
Swag & Giveaways,

The Team

Andrea Novo, Sr. Brand Designer / Design Lead
Gloria Hiek, Brand Design Manager
Evan Lin, Brand Designer
Nick Klein, Photographer & Animator
Olivia Morell, Head of Copywriting
Autumn Gurevich, Freelance Copywriter

Trade show booth for Houzz Pro exhibit in a large indoor convention center, featuring hanging signage, computer stations, and display panels with various graphics and branding.
Two people, a woman and a man, standing behind a Houzz Pro booth at a trade show. The woman has long blonde hair and is smiling, while the man, wearing a black blazer, is also smiling. The booth features a large Houzz Pro logo, a laptop, a water bottle, and informational materials on the counter. There are other visitors and booths visible in the background.
Two people on stage participating in a discussion at a conference, seated on white stools in front of a large screen that reads 'Building a Design Brand' with the 'HOUZZ PRO' logo, and an audience watching.
Expo booth display for Houzz PRO with a large screen showing various project management features, and a logo on a blue panel. The booth has tables with computers, and a wooden wall with a small monitor and a lamp.
Trade show booth with signage for Houzz Pro and computer workstations.
Screenshot of the Houzz Pro app interface, showing a dark background with colorful vertical lines and icons for tasks, charts, and home projects.
A promotional infographic for Houzz Pro, a business management platform, featuring text, images of professionals, and icons highlighting its features and benefits.
A promotional graphic for Houzz Pro construction management software, featuring a quote from Matt Panella about its benefits, a photo of two contractors on a construction site, and an image of a person using a smartphone with a construction site visi
An advertisement encouraging outdoor activities, featuring a smartphone screen displaying a project management app with various project names and options, set against a colorful abstract background.
Houzz Pro logo featuring a blue house icon and the text 'houzz PRO' on a navy blue background with a shadowed blue border.
A digital infographic featuring a photo of two women in a modern interior with large windows, a quote about Houzz Pro by Sarah Horst of Hawk Interiors, connected icons suggestive of a digital system, and a woman holding a tablet showing an interior d

Booth Brand Video

Colorful horizontal sliders with the words "Trust", "the", and "Process" inside white outlined circles, set against a dark blue background.
A digital marketing graphic with the text 'Designed to do it all, Built to do it right' on a dark blue background. It features a circular portrait of a smiling man, quotes from clients, a green button labeled 'PANEL DISCUSSION', a black button labele
A digital dashboard with icons representing different analytics and data visualization tools, organized in a grid with connecting lines indicating workflow or process flows.
Six horizontal progress bars with gradient colors on a dark background.
Screenshots of four social media stories advertising a building knowledge session, a bar graph, happy hour, and a giveaway of a YETI gift with a badge, all with dark blue backgrounds and various images of people, drinks, and products.
A black T-shirt with the text 'Trust the Process' in white and purple letters, and small icons of the Facebook and Houzz logos. The T-shirt is folded on a purple background.
Woman with glasses and a black T-shirt that says "Trust the Process", talking to a man in a blue jacket at a conference or event.
A man wearing a black jacket and a name tag stands at a tech conference, focused on a computer screen in front of him, with many attendees in the background.
A woman with long blonde hair smiling and talking to a man holding a glass of beer at a conference or event.
Three blue casino chips with white accents on an orange background, each displaying different text and symbols: one says "Coffee on the Houzz," another says "Visit Houzz Pro" with a QR code, and the third says "Beer on the Houzz".
Two vertically stacked flyers with a gradient background. The top flyer has a white and blue gradient background, with black text and icons about beverages and coffee. The bottom flyer, partially visible, has a pink and orange gradient background with some black text.

Event Landing Page

Screenshot of a website for Houzz Pro, featuring event information, schedule, photos from a trade show, and images of speakers.
A collage of presentation slides and digital project visuals related to design process, branding, and marketing strategies. Emphasis on trust in the process, with colorful graphics and charts.

The Creative Process

During the initial stages of the Trust the Process campaign, our design and copy team worked closely to brainstorm trade show activations based on the campaign's concepts and messaging. I had the opportunity to explore various design solutions for all campaign touch-points. Throughout the process, I maintained internal weekly reviews to revise and evolve our concepts, ensuring they were refined to their full potential. The final step in the concept brainstorming stage was to propose final design concepts to the stakeholders, seeking approvals and feedback.

Creative Internal Messaging

It takes a whole lot of trust to grow a business. Trust in the teammates picked, trust in the vision brought to the table, and trust in the software chosen to keep operations running smoothly. Cue Houzz Pro — an all-encompassing business hub built on a foundation of trustworthy tools inspired by our pros’ work ethic, drive, and high-bar for quality.

From lightning-fast templates to a CRM that always reminds them to follow up, Houzz Pro amplifies the pride felt when a payment comes in and the rush of relief when a prospect turns into a project.

How to grow more while doing less?
Trust the process — better known as Houzz Pro

Colorful sliders labeled 'Trust,' 'the,' and 'Process,' with a dark background and a small white logo or icon on the right.

Visual Concepts

01 | Process Driven

02 | Humanizing the Process

Defining the Trade Show Process

Streamlining the Process

The Trust the Process Campaign marked a milestone for Houzz, as it was our first-ever comprehensive marketing campaign with a trade show component. Given the unique nature of this undertaking, our team embraced the challenge of not only creating the necessary assets for the campaign but also establishing a thorough process that could guide us in future campaigns. To achieve this, we carefully structured the process into phases, ensuring a systematic and efficient approach to campaign development. These four phases were named: Define & Plan, Concept Brainstorm, Design & Prototype, and finally, Review & Launch.

Define & Plan: Auditing Previous Trade Shows

During the initial stage, the stakeholders and the copy team collaborated to define the messaging for the 2023 Trust the Process Campaign. During this time, I audited the various touch-points of the IBS & KBIS Shows and created a roadmap and strategy based on learnings and discoveries. This led to building a more well-rounded campaign that included new touch-points such as informational landing pages, more learn articles on our site, and a more robust email campaign.

2022 Touch-point Audit

The Updated 2023 Touch-point Road Map

Review & Launch

During the execution phase of the campaign, I worked to implement the selected designs across all the final touchpoints, aiming for consistent and impactful messaging.

Throughout the design stage, we actively sought feedback from stakeholders, considering their valuable insights to refine our creative vision. It was at this stage that we revised the designs based on the feedback and obtained final sign-off on all the required assets. It was also during the execution stage that I project-managed the creative team’s workloads to ensure that not only did we hit all vendor deadlines, but that all files were production ready. After the final file send-off, we documented our design decisions for future review and enhancement.

Production Comps