How an audience signal became a more intentional, repeatable event experience.
Marketing was already seeing a strong response to a rubber duck giveaway. Creative was skeptical that it belonged in a B2B brand.
I chose to treat that response as a design opportunity: how could we make the idea feel intentional, distinctive and connected to maintenance culture?
The duck idea came from Marketing. My part was developing the experience around it.
Together with another designer, I helped move the booth beyond a backdrop-and-desk setup. We considered what visitors would notice at a distance, understand as they approached and interact with once they arrived.
The duck became part of a connected brand world, alongside product storytelling, demos, uniforms and relevant swag.
Visibility and message hierarchy helped the experience stand out on a busy trade-show floor.
A three-step product story, event-specific UI and an interactive phone demo connected the attraction to the product.
A maintenance-worker duck and audience-relevant swag added playfulness; more corporate uniforms balanced it with credibility.
Attendees recognized the character and wanted to take it home. The concept continued appearing across MaintainX events and community activations.
For me, the important shift was treating an unexpected audience response as something to develop with intention, not something to dismiss because it broke category expectations.