WhatsApp: Message Privately

I helped shape the global media brief for Message Privately and managed the rollout with international media, product marketing, and research teams. My work connected audience planning and testing with the creative and media decisions needed to launch across markets.

The 2021 campaign used familiar situations to explain why private messaging matters. Its films let viewers see the moment around a conversation while keeping the messages between the people involved.

Dream Job

A woman gets news about her next career move and leaves the office with a smile. The conversation behind that decision stays private.

A woman in a purple sweater carries a box of belongings through an office. — Watch on Vimeo

Watch Dream Job and read the project.

Keeping the plan and the research connected

I worked with international media, product marketing, and research teams to translate the global strategy into audience priorities, media principles, and creative delivery requirements.

When campaign plans changed, I kept research partners involved so the evaluation reflected what actually ran. We then worked through the findings together to turn them into recommendations for the next phase. It made the research useful to the people making the next set of campaign decisions.

Secret Language

Another film follows someone learning the language of a loved one through private conversations.

Watch Secret Language and read the project.

A visual language for privacy

The wider Message Privately work also includes a visual identity documented by Hueso and Jeroen Krielaars of Calango. The team developed a recurring symbol to make layers of protection recognizable, exploring the familiar shape of a lock and how it could work both as a still image and in motion.

The same design rules extended to individual privacy features, including two-step verification, end-to-end encryption, disappearing messages, and leaving groups silently. Hueso describes a library of still, motion, and sound assets, with the system used across more than 1,400 campaign assets. That figure describes the production’s scale, rather than audience reach or campaign results.

The Behance gallery, published on June 19, 2023, includes the finished work and design explorations. Its publication date does not establish when the work launched; it is included here as related campaign context alongside the 2021 films.

For this visual system, Hueso credits Gianluca Fallone as director, Santiago Moncalvo as executive producer, and Fallone and Krielaars for graphic design. The Behance entry credits Krielaars for motion design; Hueso’s project page lists the wider animation team.

Campaign visuals

These images and motion studies come from Hueso’s project archive, with graphic design by Gianluca Fallone and Jeroen Krielaars. Select an image to enlarge it; each motion study has playback controls.

The layered privacy symbol over a group of friends outdoors.

The privacy symbol

Layered privacy symbol — motion study by the Hueso team.

Portraits combined with the layered lock silhouette.

A multicolored version of the layered privacy symbol.

Green and cream layers forming the privacy symbol.

A stacked, multicolored variation of the lock.

Two-way color applications across light, dark, and green backgrounds.

Campaign applications

The photographic privacy symbol between “Message” and “Privately”.

A portrait framed by the privacy symbol on a vertical campaign panel.

A green campaign panel explaining that WhatsApp cannot see or hear the conversation.

A dark campaign panel about the risk of unencrypted messages.

A portrait and layered lock combined in a second vertical application.

A photographic campaign panel expressing a commitment to privacy.

A conversation-style composition pairing “Say it” with “Privately”.

A photograph of two people embracing above the word “Anywhere”.

A typographic campaign panel reading “Almost secure is not a thing.”

A message bubble, photograph, and privacy label on a dark panel.

A sequence of photographic campaign panels about personal connection.

Privacy features

Privacy-feature icons drawn in cream on a dark background.

A black-and-cream reference sheet for the privacy-feature icons.

An outlined privacy-icon system on a green background.

Nine stages in an animated hidden-online-presence icon.

An overview of the green, cream, and dark privacy-icon family.

A collage bringing campaign typography, photographs, and privacy symbols together.

Features in motion

Block and report — motion study by the Hueso team.

End-to-end encryption — motion study by the Hueso team.

Disappearing messages — motion study by the Hueso team.

PIN protection — motion study by the Hueso team.

Encrypted protection — motion study by the Hueso team.

Block-and-report graphics paired with a short feature explanation.

An end-to-end encryption campaign layout combining typography and photography.

Feature applications combining icon illustrations with explanatory copy.

Design explorations

An early green three-dimensional study of layered protection.

A tall, sketched structure exploring layers of protection.

A layered lock sketch with hanging structural lines.

A glowing green circular lock exploration.

A page of pencil sketches exploring the lock and its construction.

A photographic circular-lock concept between “Message” and “Privately”.

Calango’s presentation

Film credits

The films were directed by Courtney Hoffman and produced by Lief, with WhatsApp’s Creative X team and BBDO Berlin. I’m credited for strategic media planning in the Dream Job credits and the campaign’s production coverage.

The individual project pages include the films and stills from Lief’s uploads.