Nutricia: Baby Connection

Young parents all over Belgium rely on Nutricia babyfoods every day. To support mums even before their baby is born, Duval Guillaume helped Nutricia create Baby Connection, an iPhone app designed to get dads more involved in the pregnancy.

Baby Connection works best when you use it as a couple. There is a mum version and a dad version, and everything each parent adds is automatically synced with their partner’s phone. The app can even transform two iPhones into one big screen.

A couples app that turns involvement into habit

The mechanism is simple and deliberate. Split the experience into two roles, then keep both roles in lockstep through syncing. Add a playful physical trick, two phones acting like one screen, to make “doing this together” feel tangible, not just promised.

In Belgian consumer brand building, support tools land best when they reduce friction for both parents and make the dad’s role practical, not symbolic.

Why it lands

This works because it shifts the conversation from “be more involved” to “here is exactly how”. Shared inputs, shared visibility, shared moments. The app design quietly nudges the couple into repeated check-ins, which is where involvement stops being intention and becomes routine.

Extractable takeaway: If you want two people to share responsibility, design the product so both can contribute in small ways, see each other’s contributions instantly, and feel like a team without extra coordination effort.

Launching an app with an experience, not a banner

The real question is how to make shared participation feel real before the baby arrives, not how to advertise another pregnancy app.

To launch Baby Connection, Duval Guillaume backed the app with a campaign designed to be as distinctive as the product itself, and to pull the idea into public conversation beyond the app store listing.

The stronger move is to market the shared behaviour the product enables, not just the app itself.

What pregnancy-support brands can borrow

  • Design for the couple, not the individual. Two roles, one shared narrative.
  • Make syncing the default. Shared visibility is the involvement mechanic.
  • Add one physical “together” moment. A simple device interaction can signal partnership better than copy.
  • Launch the product idea, not only the product. If the behaviour change is the point, market the behaviour.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Nutricia Baby Connection?

A paired iPhone app for expectant couples, with separate mum and dad versions that sync pregnancy updates and activities between both phones.

What is the core mechanism?

Two-role design plus automatic syncing, so both parents can add and see information without manual coordination.

Why does the “two iPhones as one screen” idea matter?

It turns a digital feature into a physical couple moment, reinforcing that pregnancy planning is shared, not solo.

What is the business intent behind this kind of app?

To support and deepen trust with parents before birth, by providing a practical tool that keeps the brand present in daily routines.

What is the most reusable lesson here?

If you want involvement from a second person, make contribution easy, feedback immediate, and shared progress visible.

Depaul UK: iHobo

It is easy to ignore a homeless person as you walk past them on the street, but after having one on your phone for three days Depaul UK hopes you will see the complex and varied issues behind youth homelessness.

This free app was created pro bono by Publicis London to raise awareness of Depaul UK, a charity devoted to youth homelessness in the UK.

Three days with a person you cannot swipe away

The mechanism is designed to feel like responsibility, not content. Over three days, the app keeps returning with prompts from a single “virtual homeless person”, pulling you back into their needs and decisions at inconvenient, everyday moments. That works because repeated prompts turn passive sympathy into felt responsibility.

In UK urban life where homelessness is visible but easy to mentally filter out, sustained micro-interruptions, small prompts that arrive during ordinary routines, can create empathy better than one big, easily-dismissed message.

Why it lands

The idea works because it weaponizes time. You do not get a one-minute burst of sadness and a clean exit. You get repeated friction, enough to feel the difference between “seeing” homelessness and “living alongside” it, even in a small way.

Extractable takeaway: If you need real attention for a complex cause, build a short, bounded experience that returns to the user repeatedly, then make the “I did something” step simple and immediate.

What Depaul is really trying to change

The real question is how to make someone feel ongoing responsibility for a problem they usually pass in seconds.

This is fundraising logic disguised as experience design. Depaul is trying to reach people who do not respond to posters and leaflets, and to do it on the device they check constantly. The app turns awareness into a relationship, then uses that relationship to make donating feel like a natural next step.

What cause campaigns can take from iHobo

  • Use duration as the persuasion. Three days is long enough to form a habit, short enough to try.
  • Design for interruption, not bingeing. Timed prompts beat long videos for sustained attention.
  • Keep the user’s role clear. Caring, deciding, responding. Clarity prevents drop-off.
  • Bound the experience. A defined end reduces resistance to starting.

A few fast answers before you act

What is iHobo?

A free mobile app created for Depaul UK that asks users to look after a “virtual homeless person” for three days to build awareness of youth homelessness.

What is the core mechanism?

Time-boxed engagement. The app returns with prompts over multiple days, creating repeated contact that is harder to ignore than a single awareness message.

Why three days?

It is long enough to create attachment and repeated friction, but short enough that people will still commit to trying it.

What makes this different from a standard charity film?

It turns passive viewing into ongoing responsibility. The message arrives on your schedule, not the campaign’s.

What is the most reusable lesson for other causes?

If the issue is complex, do not rely on a single emotional peak. Build a short series of small, repeated moments that accumulate into understanding and action.

Renault Espace: iPad 360° View

The Renault Espace is a large MPV from French car-maker Renault. With a new iPad app, Renault gives users an onboard view of the Espace like never before.

The application is a 360 degree interactive video. All you need to do is tilt your iPad and explore different angles as if you were right there.

A virtual showroom that behaves like your head

The mechanism is refreshingly direct. The app uses the iPad’s motion sensors to map physical movement to viewpoint changes inside the car. Instead of tapping through static photos, you “look around” by moving the device. It is a smart use of motion sensing because it keeps the interface invisible and the focus on the cabin.

In automotive consideration journeys, anything that increases spatial understanding of the interior helps bridge the gap between online browsing and a test drive.

Why it lands

Interior experience is one of the hardest things to communicate in standard car marketing. This solves that by letting the user control perspective. It also creates a calmer kind of interactivity. No menus, no instructions, no friction. Just tilt and explore.

Extractable takeaway: When your product has a strong spatial component, give people viewer control over perspective. It builds confidence faster than adding more copy.

What Renault is really trying to achieve

The real question is whether this kind of “tilt to explore” experience reduces uncertainty enough to make a showroom visit feel worth it.

This is a digital test-sit, a lightweight simulation of sitting in the cabin so you can judge layout and comfort before a showroom visit. It is designed to make the Espace feel accessible before a showroom visit, and to reduce uncertainty about cabin layout, visibility, and perceived comfort. Done well, it also keeps attention longer than a typical brochure flow.

Steal this for spatial product demos

  • Use motion as navigation. If the device supports it, motion control can feel more natural than UI controls.
  • Keep the interaction single-mode. One behaviour. Tilt to look. That simplicity is the feature.
  • Prioritise the interior. For family vehicles, cabin experience often sells more than exterior styling.
  • Let curiosity drive. Give users freedom to explore, rather than forcing a predetermined tour.
  • Make it fast to load. Interactive video dies when buffering becomes the dominant experience.

A few fast answers before you act

What is this Renault Espace iPad app in one sentence?

It is an iPad experience that uses a 360 degree interactive onboard video so users can tilt the device to explore the Espace interior from different angles.

Why use 360 video instead of a standard photo gallery?

Because it communicates space and layout more effectively. Users can look where they want, which reduces uncertainty faster than scrolling images.

What makes “tilt to explore” feel intuitive?

It mirrors how people look around in real life. Physical movement maps directly to viewpoint changes, so interaction feels natural.

What is the main execution risk?

Performance. If motion tracking feels laggy, or the video quality is poor, users will abandon quickly and the experience will feel like a gimmick.

What should you measure if you ship this type of experience?

Time spent, percentage of users who explore multiple viewpoints, completion rate, repeat sessions, and whether it correlates with test-drive requests or dealer inquiries.