When Gilad Yefet, a young software engineer, decided to take a year off from work, he never imagined that his personal hobby would develop into a unique startup company that is now worth $133 million a year. His company, My Heritage, is an Israeli startup that developed a website that is a social network of family trees under the ambitious vision: “to map the family tree of humanity and allow each and every one to discover and share family roots.” The software that he began developing at home in 2003 is now a huge database that controls 40 million family trees, describing the lives of 2.5 billion people, which have been uploaded to the site by 93 million users in 42 languages. The site allows users to cross-reference information, find distant relatives in other family trees, and condense their family tree in databases and documents that the company creates and acquires.
Thanks to the company's activities, millions of families around the world have discovered their heritage, have been able to connect with distant family members, lost family members, and family members who were thought to have perished in the Holocaust.
The company is also engaged in many non-profit activities for the community, including establishing a genetic database dedicated to locating kidnapped Yemeni children and locating heirs of property from the Holocaust era.
In 2016, the company launched an at-home genetic testing service that provides DNA matching. This is where we, the NFH team, come into the picture.
The kit was the first offline product of My Heritage And when it arrived in our hands, we were filled with a sense of anticipation and excitement for the journey we were embarking on. Just like the company's end customers who are destined to receive the kit. The encounter between the packaging and the customer is the launch point and connection between the customer and the brand. The experience and story here had to convey technological accessibility that is connected to a family tradition.
The kit, which contains two plastic containers, two samples and an envelope to send the test, required us to think creatively and very emotionally in order to create an experience that arouses anticipation, is positive and exciting for customers. Taking into account the various regulations and restrictions that accompany such a highly sensitive product, we were able to produce Experiential packaging With an unboxing experience and a functional and simple user experience that leaves a sense of exciting anticipation for the next stage of the journey.
