Appcoin

American Greetings is the world’s largest greeting card company. Based in Cleveland, the company sells paper greeting cards, electronic greeting cards, party products and electronic expressive content

In 2014 AG approached FutureBrand with a compelling vision for the future of digital gifting. American Greetings recognized there was an opportunity to enhance the experience of digital gifting – an experience driven by gifting apps. They wanted to partner with FutureBrand to help realize their vision through branding and storytelling.

The answer is Appcoin. A physical coin which you scan with a tablet or smartphone in order to download your gifted app while enjoying a unique, fun interactive experience.

FutureBrand decided to put an innovation and design process in place that would help us achieve the white space thinking the project required. This process would serve as a prototype for a broader product innovation offer, which FutureBrand could promote and employ for new and existing clients. Our ideas were presented as a series of concepts – each included a proposition, logo, pack design and messaging. From eight design routes, we selected one winner. Recognizing that gifting is a pluralistic experience, the solution employed a personalized ‘doodle’ style to create a meaningful emotional connection between the gifter and the receiver

The design tested incredibly well during research and was approved for refinement and roll out to packaging, retail presentation and a brand video.

American Greetings successfully completed a series of vendor meetings where they secured partnerships with Apple, Lumosity, Birchbox, Graze, Club W, Evernote, GameFly, Audible.com, BarkBox and The New York Times. Retail testing begins in April 2016.