BYOD

BYOD (Beyond Your Own Design) is a creative studio specializing in the design and integration of digital brand personas (DBPs) for purpose-driven enterprises. Specifically, we define digital brand personas as the humanization of a brand through the use of voice, chat-bot, CGI Avatar and combinations of these formats across both physical and digital environments. At BYOD, we believe in "humanizing brands to better humanity" and in using our unique design methodology we aim to augment digital brand strategies through the use of DBPs.

Challenge

In today’s economy, brands and organizations must acknowledge the importance of implementing a purpose-driven strategy within their organizational objectives. While traditional branding has focused on consumption through brand image, personality, and values, digital native customers today, are looking on connecting with brands with a purpose. Specifically, digital natives desire brands’ actions to meet their needs, have a positive impact on others and connect them with an ideal or community that’s bigger than themselves.

Approach

With the intention of creating a more authentic and meaningful digital brand experience, BYOD partnered with DEED, a social volunteering application based in NYC. Enabled by their unique digital platform, with a presence on social media, DEED provided an ideal scenario to apply, test, and learn the value and benefits DBPs can have for purpose-driven enterprises.

In order to successfully deliver a digital brand persona for DEED, we constructed a design sprint framework composed of four phases: Discover, Define, Design and Deliver. Leveraging social media analytics, user data, field research and competitive insights, BYOD was able to inform their design process rooted in human-centered research methodologies.

Solution

With careful attention to detail and empathic human-centered insights, BYOD created Sofia BYOD, a fully 3D-rendered CGI avatar for DEED. Sofia was strategically crafted based on DEED’s social media market research.

Everything from Sofia’s name, age, ethnicity, style-aesthetics, tone and voice were crafted based on user research insights. BYOD used these insights to create a persona for DEED that ultimately embodied their brand values and resonated with their target audience.

The final deliverable for DEED not only included a CGI avatar ready for application for all digital brand campaigns but also a Strategy Playbook for them to be able to manage and implement their DBP in the long-term within their business objectives.