Wonder & Tastykake: Deploy the Joy

The Campaign

Deploy the Joy was a summer promotional partnership between the USO and Flowers Foods (parent company of Wonder and Tastykake). Alongside a $1 million donation, Wonder and Tastykake released specialty USO-branded packaging and launched a digital campaign where customers could send messages of support to active military service members.

The Technical Challenge

The core functionality was a message-sharing experience built around the USO's existing messaging API. The catch? The USO's system only supported plain text, no rich media, no HTML. I had to build an engaging, visually dynamic front-end experience that ultimately funneled into a very constrained backend.

Over 3.3 million messages were sent to troops through the platform, proof that a well-built interface can turn a simple action into a movement.

What I Built

The USO's default form was a basic dropdown with generic styling. I pulled the pre-written messages out of that dropdown and built a visual carousel where users could browse messages displayed as bold, typographic cards with patriotic background patterns. This transformed a boring form interaction into something users actually wanted to engage with.

• Message carousel with swipeable cards, custom animations, and clear CTAs
• Custom message flow letting users write their own words of support alongside pre-written options
• Modal-based submission with form validation, USO API integration, and coupon delivery on success
• Responsive design ensuring the experience worked seamlessly on mobile, which mattered for in-store engagement
• Social sharing integration for post-submission amplification

The Flow

The user journey was carefully orchestrated: land on the page, browse or write a message, submit through a modal form that integrated with the USO's messaging system, then receive product coupons and social sharing prompts. Every step had to feel smooth and emotionally resonant while handling the technical constraints of a third-party API.

The Result

The campaign drove massive engagement: over 3.3 million messages sent to troops. The interactive carousel approach dramatically outperformed the original dropdown form, proving that thoughtful front-end engineering can turn a simple form submission into a meaningful user experience.