Wonder & Tastykake: Deploy the Joy

The Campaign

Deploy the Joy was a summer promotional partnership between the USO and Flowers Foods. 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. We had to build an engaging, visually dynamic front-end experience that ultimately funneled into a very constrained backend.

What We Built

We pulled the pre-written messages out of a basic dropdown and built a visual carousel where users could browse messages displayed as bold, typographic cards with patriotic background patterns.

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

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.