The client: The Bachrach Naumburger Group owns and manages a portfolio of commercial office and retail properties in Australia.

Challenge: How can we launch a Christmas 2020 campaign in our shopping centres that families will want to share and talk about and best suits this rapidly changing COVID-19 environment?

Goals

• To create a memorable and shareable experience for shoppers
• To attract more customer visits to our shopping centres
• To help the brand go viral on social media
• To encourage the visitors to explore around the centre and stay longer
• To provide a COVID-safe Santa photography experience for shoppers

Solution: The following augmented reality and web services were provided to achieve the goals.

1. Augmented reality treasure hunt: We produced nine custom augmented reality animations to tell the story of the Christmas and to allow families to discover and have fun with loveable Christmas characters including Santa Clause, reindeers, elves, gingerbreads, snowmen, Christmas tree and gift boxes. One of the animations showed the nativity scene. The animations formed a consistent story for the centre. The client worked with us to design the floor decals. The decals were placed around the shopping centre to be scanned by mobile users to watch the magic through the CreativiTek app. The shoppers were encouraged to complete the digital entry form on the app to register for major prizes. Additional weekly prizes were also awarded to those who shared photos with Christmas characters on social media using the centre’s hashtag.

2. Augmented reality giveaway (print calendar): We activated an augmented reality animation on a giveaway calendar. Families were able to bring to life two dancing Christmas characters directly from the calendar.

3. Augmented reality Santa photography: A Santa animation was created for this purpose. The mobile users were able to bring the animation to life using the Creativitek app. At the end of the animation, Santa stopped and posed for a photo with the shoppers. The mobile users were also able to resize and move around Santa for the perfect photo.

4. In-app pop-ups to direct shoppers to a webpage to register for prizes: In-app pop-ups were built to appear at the end of each animation to direct shoppers to a webpage in order to complete a digital form and register for prizes. Both pop-up and webpage were custom designed to reflect the campaign's style (colours, fonts, etc.).

5. Custom augmented reality face filter: We worked with the client to create a branded elf face filter for both Instagram and Facebook users. The client recorded a creative video of their staff with the face filter talking about their Christmas campaign. The video was posted on their Facebook page and attracted more than 1,600 views.

Outcome: The floor decals were scanned more than 3,200 times and the giveaway calendar was scanned more than 1,100 times. The videos of animations and the face effect which were shared on the Facebook attracted about 13,000 views.