Tag: Personalization

Crafted By My Heart

A ring becomes more than a ring when the pattern is literally yours.

“Crafted By My Heart” is an app launched by DDB Group Hong Kong that lets you customize jewelry with your own heartbeat. You place a finger over the smartphone’s camera and flash. The app detects subtle changes in finger coloration, measures your heartbeat, then translates its intensity and rhythm into a unique digital rendering. That rendering becomes the basis for a one-of-a-kind ring.

The idea in one line

Turn biometric signal into a personal design language, then manufacture it as a physical object.

How the experience works

The flow is intentionally simple.

  1. Capture
    You use the phone’s flash and camera to read your heartbeat through small changes in skin coloration.
  2. Translate
    The heartbeat becomes a digital rendering that is unique to your rhythm.
  3. Craft
    That rendering is used to create a ring. It is not a generic engraving. It is a form generated by your own signal.

The product choices are clear and bounded

The app offers two base designs, Surge and Sierra, with three finishes: gold, silver, or black silver. Rings cost between HK$1,198 and HK$1,588 (listed as US$155 to US$205), and take around 15 to 20 working days to complete.

Why this works as innovation, not just novelty

Personalization is structural, not cosmetic

A lot of customization is color, text, or surface. Here, the customer input generates the form. That feels materially more personal.

Technology removes the intimidation barrier

Biometrics and jewelry-making sound complex. The interaction is not. One finger. One phone. A result you can explain in one sentence.

The story is built-in

The product carries a narrative you can repeat instantly. It is your heartbeat, turned into a physical object. That makes it inherently giftable.

The deeper point

When brands look for meaningful personalization, the win is rarely “more options.” The win is finding a signal that matters emotionally, translating it into a design system, and making the creation process easy enough that people actually do it.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the core mechanic behind Crafted By My Heart?

The phone’s camera and flash detect heartbeat via subtle changes in finger coloration, then translate the rhythm into a digital rendering used to craft a ring.

What does the customer actually customize?

They select a base design and finish. The unique part is the heartbeat-generated rendering that drives the final piece.

What are the available designs and finishes?

Two base designs. Surge and Sierra. Three finishes. Gold, silver, and black silver.

What are the price and production timelines?

HK$1,198 to HK$1,588 (US$155 to US$205). Around 15 to 20 working days.

What is the transferable lesson for other categories?

If you can capture a personal signal that people care about, translate it into a design language, and make ordering effortless, you turn “customization” into meaning.

Coca-Cola Light: The Return of Love in Brazil

A relaunch built on memory. And a ritual

In 2009 Coca-Cola Light was taken out of the Brazilian market. But even after its five year absence, 99% of Brazilians still had the brand in their minds.

So for their 2014 relaunch they identified 150 influencers that were also real Coca-Cola Light lovers. Then a special handmade suitcase was delivered to each one of them. The suitcase contained a personal letter with the relaunch news and a ritual to send Coca-Cola Light cans to special friends with their names handwritten on it. The results:

The move: turn influencers into messengers, not media

The suitcase is not “merch.” It is a delivery mechanism for a story and a behavior. The influencer receives the relaunch news. Then immediately passes it on, name-by-name, to people who matter to them.

Why this feels like love, not marketing

Handwritten names shift the tone. You are not forwarding an ad. You are sending a personal gift with someone’s identity on it. That makes the relaunch feel earned and human, especially after a long absence.

The relaunch job-to-be-done

Restart conversation and consumption fast by activating people who already love the brand, and giving them a simple way to recruit other “special friends” into the comeback.

Steal this play

  • When a brand returns, start with believers. Then give them a repeatable sharing ritual.
  • Use personalization as the transmission fuel. Names beat slogans.
  • Package the behavior, not just the product. The “how to share” should be inside the box.

A few fast answers before you act

What did Coca-Cola Light do for the 2014 relaunch in Brazil?

They identified 150 influencers who were genuine Coca-Cola Light lovers and delivered handmade suitcases containing a personal letter and a sharing ritual.

What was inside the suitcase?

A personal letter announcing the relaunch and a ritual for sending Coca-Cola Light cans to special friends with names handwritten on the cans.

Why use handwritten names?

It turns distribution into a personal gesture. The relaunch message travels as a named gift rather than a generic announcement.

What is the core mechanic behind the campaign?

Activate true fans first, then convert them into one-to-one distributors by giving them a simple ritual to pass the product on to friends.

Desperados: YouTube Takeover

A takeover that pulls social identity into the video

In digital video marketing, the most ambitious takeovers do not just run before content. They try to become the experience people came for. Desperados’ execution is a clean example of that intent.

Here is a pretty cool and ambitious YouTube takeover. It is one of the first ones I have seen that also integrates the Facebook Connect functionality as part of the experience.

How Desperados built the takeover experience

The YouTube campaign was created by Dufresne Corrigan Scarlett and MediaMonks for beer brand Desperados.

The takeover let you interact with the story as it unfolded and also let you bring your Facebook friends into the party by pulling in photos on the fly.

Why bringing friends into the story changes attention

Standard video asks for passive watching. This approach creates viewer control and personal stakes.

Once your friends’ faces and your social graph are part of the narrative, the content stops feeling generic. It starts feeling like it is happening to your world. That makes the experience more memorable and more likely to be shared, because it is no longer just “a brand film”. It is a moment that includes you.

The business intent behind the social layer

The intent is to move beyond reach and toward participation.

By using Facebook Connect and on-the-fly photos, the campaign tried to turn viewers into co-owners of the experience. That increases time spent, lifts recall, and creates a natural reason to invite others, because the party becomes better when your people are in it.

What to steal from this kind of takeover

  • Make interaction serve the story. Viewer control works when it changes what happens next, not when it is a gimmick.
  • Personalization is strongest when it is social. Pulling in friends can create instant relevance and emotion.
  • Design the invite loop into the experience. If friends improve the outcome, sharing becomes functional, not promotional.
  • Choose the platform feature that matches the idea. When identity is the hook, social login becomes a creative tool.

To experience it yourself visit: www.youtube.com/desperados

A few fast answers before you act

What was the Desperados YouTube takeover?

An interactive YouTube campaign that integrated Facebook Connect so viewers could bring friends’ photos into the unfolding story.

What was the core mechanism?

Viewer control within the takeover experience, paired with a social login layer that pulled in photos dynamically during playback.

Why does Facebook Connect matter in this context?

It makes the experience personal and social. When the content includes your friends, it feels more relevant and more worth sharing.

What business goal did this support?

Increasing time spent and participation by turning a brand film into an experience that feels co-created and socially expandable.

What is the main takeaway for brands?

If you want people to stay and share, give them control and a way to bring their world into the story.