The client: Yakult is the world's leading probiotic beverage created in Japan in 1935. Today, Yakult is sold in 40 countries and regions around the world.

Challenge: How can we use emerging augmented reality technology to engage and educate consumers and those who visit our factory in Australia?

Goals: 

• To add a virtual layer to Yakult’s main educational banner and provide an immersive learning experience for the target audience
• To enable mobile users to interact with and capture photos and videos with Yakult Man (Yakult’s mascot)

Solution: We used a social media augmented reality platform (Meta’s Spark AR) and created a 2D/3D animation that came to life from Yakult’s educational banner. The AR experience showed how Yakult improves overall health. The main challenge in producing these types of immersive augmented reality learning experiences is to create something magical and playful that keeps the mobile user engaged and interested, but still easy to use and learn from. We used 2D and 3D animations, texts, and audio to create an immersive and engaging experience. When we use Meta’s Spark AR platform for creating AR experiences, all Facebook and Instagram users can easily enjoy the experience without installing any other applications.

We also created 3D models of red and blue Yakult mascots and produced an AR experience that came alive from one of Yakult Man’s images. In the first part of the experience, both red and blue Yakult mascots flew around while waving hands to the user. We also enabled the mobile user to switch to the front camera and capture a selfie with the blue Yakult Man.

These augmented reality experiences will help Yakult engage and educate people in their factory tours and other events, exhibitions, and workshops.

Services: Augmented reality development, 2D/3D animation, 3D modelling