Bring Halo Galaxy to Life in AR for Lucozade Energy
Following a successful campaign involving the beloved board game Monopoly, digital experience agency Holograph TED (the in-house creative agency at Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I), and extended reality experts, ARize have partnered again to deliver another immersive AR experience for UK consumers.
This time, the experience involves the science fiction video game and media franchise Halo, a top choice of gamers worldwide. Since it was first released in 2001, 16 game versions have been made available over the past two decades. It is easy to see why Halo is one of the most-played video games. Now, game fans can immerse themselves in an all-new experience based on the game’s latest release. Halo Infinite, all thanks to one of the UK’s top energy drink brands.
Customers & Halo Fans
Customers and Halo fans who purchase a bottle of Lucozade Energy can participate in an online competition to win various exciting prizes. Fans or customers scan the on-pack QR code to launch an immersive AR experience that places the player into the Halo world.
After entering their details, entrants choose if they want to participate in the AR-powered experience. If they say yes, their device’s camera and motion sensors activate, changing their environment into the Halo Galaxy. The user is tasked with a recon mission to search their space for a prize. Once found, the user is taken to a redemption portal to claim their reward. Users who opt not to participate in the AR experience can still play for a chance to win. Instead of their space transforming, these users can experience the Halo Galaxy via an engaging animation.
Every user wins this campaign since each bottle offers 2XP (two in-game experience points) and in-game downloadable content. One hundred one lucky winners will receive an XBOX console, while 101 players will win a 12-month game pass.
ARize’s Web AR
ARize provides Web AR technology that allows players to experience the game virtually via a browser-based experience. Without downloading any additional software or apps. This technology also can support desktop browsers. Speaking about the campaign, ARize CEO Aryan Behzadi says:
“We are always eager and excited to partner with companies who want to take advantage of being at the forefront of technology and to give the everyday user a whole new experience in different sectors. In this particular case, we were very happy to be able to design and implement an AR experience for the end-users right on their phone without any other app, or things to be downloaded or installed, making this experience completely seamless.”
Halo Campaign
The Halo campaign follows a successful partnership that brought the beloved board game Monopoly to life in AR. The campaign, which initially ran from March to May 2022 but has since been extended until 9th August 2022, was the first-ever AR campaign in the UK for Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I (SBF GB&I) and their Ribena brand. After this campaign received almost 250,000 entries from 80,000 entrants and over 62,000 AR views in its initial three months, SBF G&I were keen to continue creating immersive experiences for their customers via their other beverage brands. SBF GB&I’s Sr Developer & Digital Projects Manager, Chris Watterston, shared the company’s vision for the campaign and shed some insight into how the company may continue to leverage advanced technologies in future experiences:
Company’s Vision for the Campaign
“What an explosive and exciting campaign! If our recent Ribena + Hasbro partnership wasn’t enough, we’ve achieved yet another remarkable milestone. The Lucozade Energy + Xbox and Halo partnership gave gamers and gatekeepers the chance to ‘Unleash Their Inner Hero’. From our digital ideation to AR storyboarding, we set out to bring the widely recognized Halo holographic galaxy to life. We gave consumers a chance to win with every bottle purchased, through QR Codes, AR engagement, and exploration.”
“The opportunity to collaborate on such an activation, from two awesome brands, with remarkable outcomes makes everyone involved pleased. But nothing prepared us for the gaming community’s results and response. Our target audience was GB&I only. But we received huge waves of engagement from excited gamers in over 110 countries worldwide!”
The food and drink manufacturer has long relied on Holograph to create a memorable online customer experience. This campaign furthers a working relationship that has included the Ribena Monopoly campaign and the highly successful Ribena ‘Big Berry Bash,’ Lucozade ‘Winning Never Tasted So Good’ campaign, and Lucozade Sport’ Kit-Out Project.’ More information on those campaigns can be found here.
Next Step in Creating the Immersive Experience
For Holograph CEO Marc Woodhead, the Halo campaign is the next step in creating the immersive experience that today and tomorrow consumers will expect. He says:
“We’ve been fortunate to create fantastic experiences for Suntory’s beverage brands through the years. But these AR campaigns have taken things to a new level. Today’s consumers are more technologically savvy than ever. Therefore businesses must adopt novel strategies and ways of thinking to engage them, and working with ARize on the Halo and Monopoly campaigns has enabled us to get creative with how we deliver those experiences to customers and push the limits of our creativity.
Halo Video Game
Halo is one of those video games that even non-gamers have probably heard of, and that has a very loyal fanbase among its consumers. The pressure was high to deliver a campaign that felt authentic to the Halo Galaxy, and SFB GB&I’s TED team gave us the freedom to create that for their Lucozade brand. I suspect fans of Halo will enjoy it, as will customers who aren’t familiar with the game.”
Woodhead’s instincts seem to be on point, as the campaign received 240,000 visitors and 186,000 entries by 54,000 entrants within its first three weeks alone. Customers looking to immerse themselves in the Halo Galaxy for a chance to win can purchase a bottle of Lucozade Energy between now and 12th August 2022.
ABOUT ARIZE
Founded in 2018, ARize is an industry leader in the 3D and AR industries. Their mission is reinventing e-commerce, blockchain technology, and metaverse places with an attitude of giving creators control… ARize is on a mission to bring 3D and AR capabilities to everyone, supercharging the visual experience it brings.
ABOUT HOLOGRAPH DIGITAL
Everyone has a story. Holograph involves helping brands tell theirs via exceptional digital experiences.
We have accomplished this over the years by developing custom websites and eCommerce platforms for diverse business kinds, sizes, and regions. But we constantly evolve and have expanded into other sectors such as machine learning, AI, robotics, and wearable technology. We never settle, and neither should you. That’s why we continually extend our Digital Experience Platform (DXP) to ensure we push the boundaries within the IT industry and deliver you the most highly innovative products and online ‘connected’ solutions we can.
We’ve learned how to scale for our clients, offering ‘nodes’ of Holograph to allow them to manage significant parts of the hosting process or keep data where needed.
Learn more on our website and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
About Suntory Beverage & Food Great Britain and Ireland
Suntory Beverage & Food Great Britain and Ireland is a leading UK and Ireland soft drink business. SBF GB&I was formed in 2014 as Lucozade Ribena Suntory and is part of Suntory Beverage & Food Europe. Our much-loved soft drinks brands include Lucozade Energy, Lucozade Sport, Ribena, and Orangina.
Our “Yatte Minahare” spirit drives our business, and our role is to positively impact the lives of our consumers by providing them with a responsible choice of great-tasting drinks that people can feel good about while enabling them to lead active lifestyles.
For further information, please visit: suntorybfe.com/gbi or follow @SuntoryBF_GBI
FOR MEDIA ENQUIRIES, please get in touch with future@holograph.digital
