EchoJoy

EchoJoy is a new personalized gift card company based out of Hyderabad, founded in 2019. It was also where I worked my first full-time job, straight out of under-grad as their Graphic Designer for 1.5 years. Start ups are great cause you get to wear multiple hats and take up different roles - which is what I got the privilege to here. Here's some of my work from my time there.

Client: Zagg Networks, EchoJoy
Scope: Packaging, Social Media, Publication, Advertising, Website, Exhibition Design + Marketing, Sales, Product Developement
Year: 2019-2020

Read Time: 5 minutes

The packaging consisted of the gift card, within a box. To help manage production costs and inventory, it was decided taht the box would be standard across all variations of the cards. Box sleeves and the actual gift card design would be customized for each variation. The box sleeves not only helped with the aesthetics but they also helped keep the box shut without having to use additional magnets or clasps which would increase production cost per unit and be more complicated than a simple sleeve.

The final designs for the cards and sleeves were as follows:

In India, money is the most popular form of gifting - it's the choice of gift for many for engagements, weddings, birthdays, and other events. And what's so great about money? You get to buy what you want and need, when you want it. But how can you take the whole money in an envelope and make it a more personal experience, make it more exciting?

That's what EchoJoy (EJ) set out to do when they came up with their physical and digital gift cards, to take boring gift cards that can feel impersonal and make it fun, all while being the most preferred form of gifting - money.

EchoJoy cards were the first multi-brand gift cards in the country, meaning that while most gift cards could be redeemed at 1 particular brand, EJ cards could be redeemed at anywhere between 30-150+ brands, including both online and offline stores. Along with this, each spend assured you cash-backs and discounts for different brands ranging anywhere from 2-10%. As a gift-giver, you could also get discounts on your cards, making it one of the most affordable and economical gifting choices. You could also send digital gift cards to loved ones far away, or even employees working from home. EJ also had partnerships with multiple shopping brands and restaurants and bars that offered exclusive discounts while paying bills with EJ cards. This way, EchoJoy had managed to position itself as not only a fun gifting option, but an exciting way to get deals and save money for self consumption.

I began by looking at the different categories of gift cards we needed to make. I began by trying to understand the most popular gifting occasions, and lifestyle needs that could be enhanced with EJ cards. I decided on the following categories:

Collection: Specials

Collection: Celebrations

We decided to create cards in the above 4 categories and varients. Each card would have a curated list of brands, specific to the type of card. For example: The kid's birthday card could be redeemed at a curated list of children shopping brands,. arcades, bookstores, stationary & arts stores, and child friendly food and beverage places. TheWedding card had a curated list of furniture stores, home accessory stores, shopping brands, along with e-commerce brands like Amazon & Flipkart. Each card had it own list of brands it could be redeemed at depending on the type of card, the age group and occasion it was intended for, etc.

I then go to designing the actual gift cards. I decided that to give the. cards a premium feel, the feel of a worthy gift, a simple gift card in an envelope would not suffice. We needed a packaging that had more grandeur to it, something that created an unboxing experience for the reciever, and something that could be personalized by the gifter. After many iterations, this was the final packaging that was decided upon.

Collection: Expressions

Collection: New Beginnings

EchoJoy also ran multiple campaigns with malls in Hyderabad. The brand teamed up with Inorbit Mall and Sarath City Capital Mall and created exclusive 'mall cards'. Customers could pre-load these cards and use them to shop at the mall. Shopping with the EchoJoy card would give you discounts with certain brands, and even points for every rupee spent via the card. These points could then be redeemed for food at the mall's food courts and even redeemed against certain games and activities within the mall.

These campaigns involved a lot of marketing collateral and exhibition spaces to be designed as follows.

ECHOJOY x INORBIT MALL