Titanium – The ‘Say Thanks’ project changed how the industry looks at integrating data, blurring the lines between friendship and brand messaging. By creating films using photos and posts shared between two friends, we were able to celebrate their friendship and demonstrate the value of Facebook at the same time.

We’re all thankful for our family and friends. But for one reason or another, we rarely take a moment to thank them for being in our lives. We set out to change this by empowering people to say “thanks” to anyone meaningful in their life. Our challenge was to create something that was uniquely from the brand while being flexible enough to celebrate each of the 135 billion unique friendships on Facebook.

To do that, we created ‘Say Thanks’—a tool that gave people the power to thank their friends in the form of a customizable film.

Built using 300 adjustable templates in nine languages, ‘Say Thanks’ used the photos and posts shared between any two friends to generate endless unique films.

From the moment the experience went live, people instantly started thanking each other. 200 million films were created and sent in a matter of weeks. But even more important, this idea helped millions of people express themselves by saying thanks, while becoming closer and more connected to their friends.

We were surprised by all the gratitude that friends wanted to share, making Say Thanks an instant success.

* Over 200 million films were created and sent, generating over 500 million “Likes.”

* At peak, over 3 million films were created per hour. That’s 55 thousand per minute, with the ability to send up to four thousand per second.

* ‘Say Thanks’ drove a 12x increase in video uploads during the month of November.

Looking beyond the numbers, the best indicator of success was that one third of all people who received a film were so moved that they sent a film of their own.

We created ‘Say Thanks’ as a tool that gave people the ability to send a customized film to any of their friends as a way to say “thanks” and celebrate their friendship.

300 adjustable templates in nine languages let people around the world ‘Say Thanks’ to their friends using the photos and posts shared between them.

The tool was truly interface agnostic. People could create, customize, send and receive a film using nearly any smartphone, tablet or computer as long as they could access Facebook.

Through a previous effort around Facebook's anniversary we learned that people loved the ability to stop and reflect on their own relationships over time- something Facebook could uniquely offer. We knew the end of the year was a time many people stop to connect, share gratitude and reflect on the meaningful relationships in their lives.

We wanted to give the entire Facebook community a gift they could share with their friends and family, regardless of where they live, something that helped them say “thanks.” This experience not only gave the community something they wanted, but it helped reinforce Facebook's belief that human connection is powerful, meaningful and important.