TextNow needed a clear and consistent method to display in-app purchases and items for sale while driving interest, increasing perceived value, and assuring users that they were looking at a product feature within TextNow rather than just a regular advertisement.
Due to the lack of a standardized method for displaying TextNow ads and promoting premium features and perks within the app, users found it difficult to distinguish these ads from other advertisements that might lead them out of the app. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that TextNow interstitials and banners were presented in various styles, mixing different brand assets and appearing at different locations within the app. As a result, these promotional in-app materials started to resemble ads from external providers rather than appealing features worth upgrading to.
The first one was to create a TextNow ad component that would fit naturally into the app UI.
The second was to define a visual style that would work for any type of TextNow's promotional material.
And, the third one was to make it easy and fast to create, develop, and deliver.
We designed TextNow's in-app promotional material to be more like UI-responsive widgets rather than fixed-size interstitials or banners. Each widget includes a badge that clearly indicates the ad is owned and displayed by TextNow, feature artwork made of tiles (related icons and photography defined in master brand guidelines), and a feature description.
Badge/watermark plays a crucial role in the in-product brand system. Whenever there is a need to promote TextNow's features, bundles, deals, or services, a badge will be used to distinguish it as an internal advertisement.
In a side-by-side comparison, it is easy to spot the difference between regular ads and TextNow promoting their premium features. Once these widgets are displayed in the app itself, that difference becomes even more obvious.
Every TextNow premium perk has its own icon, used as a key component of every ad widget.
Our template-based design system is easy and quick to use even outside of a design department. With the help of this uniform and pattern-like approach, marketing or almost any other team can successfully create and post/share/use graphics that are cohesive and fit right in with the rest of the work coming from the design team itself.
Allocating these tasks to other departments by giving them this simple solution helped save resources and manage time across different departments.
To make TextNow ads more appealing and increase interaction, we also defined how they could be animated. The animation would make the ads more professional, interactive, and capable of showing more content in the same real estate. And like every project we work on, we strive to push things further. In this project, we explored how the widgets could work in AR space through a quick proof of concept.
Founded in 2009 by two university students looking to save money on their phone bills, TextNow has been putting free phone service technology into the hands of customers for over a decade.
250M downloads and counting, with a rating of 4.8
Pudding delivered a brand identity for TextNow in 2018. The same logomark is still present, and widely recognizable.
Even though we might collaborate remotely, the time zone difference should not be a concern as we are available for calls at any time. If a face-to-face meeting is required, we can travel, but we would also be delighted to welcome you to our studio.
Even though we might collaborate remotely, the time zone difference should not be a concern as we are available for calls at any time. If a face-to-face meeting is required, we can travel, but we would also be delighted to welcome you to our studio.
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Honorable Mention - Sep 24, 2024
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