A custom speaker platform built to be stepped on, along with directional or “ultrasonic” speakers designed to make the experience possible: making the intangible, tangible for consumers in the epicenter of publicity.

The US is relatively a growth market for WhatsApp, and our task was to explain privacy with end-to-end encryption in a fun and interactive way that felt human and entertaining.

Private Spot by WhatsApp is an activation to make people in the US experience what privacy feels like, by placing a one of a kind pedestal in the middle of one of the most crowded places in the world—Times Square. When someone stepped on the Private Spot, a 3D directional audio that could only be heard by them, explained the importance of privacy, and how WhatsApp’s private messaging lets them be their authentic selves, no matter where they are.

WhatsApp, a leader for private messaging, must educate and explain to people the importance of privacy, and how it protects people’s privacy with state-of-the-art end-to-end encryption technology, where no one can read or hear messages within WhatsApp, other than the sender and receiver. Not even WhatsApp. We wanted to establish this experience through an interactive experience, simplifying what end-to-end encryption actually works like.

The Art Direction reflects the design sensibilities of WhatsApp. We took elements from our well defined Brand Design system to incorporate it into the Private spot, and yet art directed it in a way that it blends with the natural environment and elements that exist in the location of activation. The Art Direction provoked passersby to interact with the Private Spot and the lights on it served as an indication of invitation.