Pampers x Snap
An effort to meaningfully elevate the Pampers brand experience in new ways, particularly through the use of AR.
Sole Designer/ Design Manager leading design innovation
Ongoing Development 2019 - 2021
Mostly Remote
Overview
Driving change within an organization.
Tools
Keynote, Lens Studio, Illustrator, Physical diaper and packaging prototyping tools
Platform
Snapchat
Team Members
Melissa Perri (Snap); Yagmur Tok (Snap); Dave Warner (Pampers); Sydney Golobin (Pampers)
Agency
Snap
While I did create the early AR prototypes and lens UI mockups, some artifacts were created by other resources that I managed. I include this in my portfolio chiefly to demonstrate my skillset, especially in the following areas:
Contribution
• Evangelizing design within your team
• Involving many different parties in the design process
• Forming the product strategy
• Driving change in your organization
Opportunity
Could we use an existing platform like Snapchat to host the kind of experiences we want?
At the time Snapchat was leading the pack in AR and had pioneered much of the space; and was on the bleeding edge of creating new ways for brands to engage with consumers.
Additionally Snap had just created tool, Lens Studio, with which creators could design their own AR experiences that would be compatible with the platform from square one.
Foundational Research and Concept Spaces
Where/ how do users meaningfully interact with AR?
Utilizing a combination of primary and secondary research, I identified the most meaningful places that we could create new brand experience touchpoints.
We know well through much of the research that we conduct in Pampers that at the shelf, when the consumer is interacting with the packaging, is an extremely important time for the brand to make a good impression. Within P&G this is called the first moment of truth (FMOT).
In the same way we also know that when the consumer interacts with our products is the next most important time for the brand to make a lasting impression. Within P&G this is called the 1.5 or second moment of truth (1.5MOT or SMOT).
Lastly any time that a parent is interacting with baby is a time that we could potentially create delight. We identified this time and time again in product (diaper) research when moms would hand their phones to baby’s for entertainment while they performed a diaper change.
Concept Spaces
To engage with consumers at shelf/ FMOT, SMOT, or with baby we knew that we wanted to be able to create experiences around and triggered from 3 key physical items.
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Packaging (or violators at shelf)
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Product (diaper)
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Mom/ Dad/ Baby’s faces
Problem
“Another app to take up space on my phone... pass.”
After conducting secondary research it became clear to me that a standalone AR experience, like 99 crimes, would not be something that users would adopt and engage with meaningfully, because of app fatigue.
Users do not want to another application that they will only use for a limited time and then will just take up space.
I saved you a little time, here's my other work:
Pee/ Poo Analyzer 1
UX/ UI Design and Strategy
Pee/ Poo Analyzer 2
UX/ UI Design and Strategy
Screening Room
UX/ UI Design and Strategy
Ideation and Proof of Concept
Minimum and viable.
I used Lens Studio to create POC prototypes that would display what this interaction could be like in real life. These prototypes were key in demonstrating the potential of these experiences and acquiring stakeholder and leadership support.
These MVP’s were made using some stock and readily available elements; they don’t represent what polished experience might look like, but had all the right information to make a case to potential stakeholders and leadership.
The prototypes shown above use a newer tracking technology to trigger the experiences from markers that already exist. This means no need for product or packaging changes to enable these experience, an extremely important selling point for leadership.
Design
Selling In 1
Organizational Influence.
Shared MVP’s with design team.
I shared these concepts first with my design team to a great reception.
The head of Pampers innovation design was wowed by the prototypes and the possibilities they offered. She offered me her standing meeting time with the Head of R&D to share the concepts.
Through this conversation I was able to get R&D support to pursue the project further and start to refine the prototypes, but this was just step one, as there was still no real home for the project and I only had a tenuous budget commitment.
Shared MVP’s with the head of R&D.
Influence
Connecting with Snap
"Uhh, who do you know here?"
Development help needed.
Lens Studio was good enough to create these types of AR experiences under ideal circumstances (camera position, lighting, etc), but if we wanted to create a stable, robust, version that could be experienced by users we would need dedicated development help.
The only problem... I didn’t have any contacts at Snapchat.
So I tried to get my foot in the door via the Lens Studio customer support system. After a little name dropping, and a little begging, I was able to get a couple of calls with different levels of the tech support team who eventually got me connected with the brand account manager at Snap responsible for some P&G brands, Melissa Perri.
Snapchat foots the bill.
I shared with Melissa what I had been working on and where I wanted it to go and she was delighted. Our interests were aligned because she had been trying, for some time, to sell her marketing contacts within Pampers about the possibilities of AR and to convince the business to run a commercial campaign with an AR component.
Melissa offered to fund the work through an existing JBP between Snap and P&G to create more polished versions of my prototypes and connected me with a subcontracted agency that Snap uses to do this. This was huge enabler as I didn’t need to ask for funds to do the work.
Polished prototypes
I managed this agency, and partnered with Melissa, to get higher fidelity prototypes made built around one of our new initiatives that activated from pack, product (diaper), and had a face component for baby.
Selling In 2
Company Influence.
Once the higher fidelity prototypes were complete, I set up more meetings with commercial partners.
Each meeting led to another with more senior members of the organization until I presented the work to the BC NA General Manager (responsible for all of Pampers NA) who wanted to pitch the BC GM (aka: CEO of Baby Care within P&G) to include AR in an upcoming commercial campaign. I presented the work to the BC GM myself at the following commercial campaign planning session. At which time she gave her blessing to include an AR execution in the campaign.
Commercial Team Integration
Love Starts With You Campaign.
I was then officially integrated into the Love Starts With You campaign team to work with Snap to create all the visual assets for filters, AR face lens, and AR pack lens. Lenses and filters were developed around the idea of giving affirmations and encouragement to parents through an even more impactful medium.
Filters:
An array of filter options were A/B tested on Snapchat with select users to identify the options achieving best engagement. These options were ultimately pushed out to users at the launch of the campaign.
AR Lens:
Facial AR Lens was built as intended, but the pack lens was pushed to the following year by Pampers leadership to be included in a different campaign.
LSWY Launch
Impact Items
What did I achieve?
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Selling in of technology resulted in dedicated media spend with Snap and AR being developed for the LSWY Campaign that launched in early 2020
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Lead and pioneered the first ever AR execution for the Baby Care category.
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The AR lens (and filters) was met with unprecedented success: in terms of engagement this is the most successful lens run by any P&G business to date.
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This work has been shared in the tech industry (by Snap) as an SOE for relevant and AR content created by a brand.
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Design lead Pampers AR work included in Snap Partners summit presentation.
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Design lead Pampers AR work presented at P&G World Without Ads Summit as a best in class example of AR. Shared with a variety of cross BU P&G leadership.
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Design lead Pampers AR Work shared in Brand Spotlight at the media and agency partners session hosted by Snap: “Snap into the Future”.
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Individually identified as a key innovation partner and had contributions showcased as an example of how to achieve success through AR Innovation.
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Influenced direction and inputted on development of first ever Pampers Pack AR lens which launched in March ’21 based on early concepts proposed in initial exploration.
Impact
Key Takeaways
What I learned.
The power of the prototype.
Having a working prototype/ demo can create a visceral understanding in people that is difficult to match by any other means. I found that as I presented the initial AR prototypes, I needed to do very little convincing, the prototypes did such a good job of conveying the intent that most everyone that I presented it to spontaneously started to brainstorm all kinds of ways that this technology could be applied. Beyond this, I think the fact that this tech was something totally new, and yet had been handmade by someone who wasn’t an expert in the field and was sitting in the room, made the idea seem all the more attainable; I didn’t I once received a comment raising concerns about the cost during my initial presentations; which is usually the norm.
In the past I had often looked to others to try and learn from their experiences; this is good, but I was doing it to the point that I was looking to be prescribed a formula to success.
I didn’t know what I was doing when I tried to establish a partnership with Snap, and neither did anyone else, this was uncharted territory. Because I was not sure of any route, I tried several experiments to see where things might lead and tried to pursue the best possible options. There was no guarantee of success with any of these approaches, but with the focus on just putting one foot in front of the other as best as I could I was able to find a way around each obstacle that appeared.
This approach allowed me to bring a new perspective and sense of leadership/ ownership to my future projects because I saw each of them as an opportunity to discover a route, instead of trying to reach a certain destination via a trail already blazed.
Focus on the climb, not the summit:
Reflection
Pack Lens Achieved
Storybook Campaign.
Sometime after the LSWY campaign Pampers launched Storybook Campaign to promote reading together with family. I worked together with Snap and marketing partners and influenced direction of development of first ever Pampers Pack AR lens which launched in March ’21 based on early concepts proposed in my initial exploration.
Storybook Launch
