How we used AR to d-Oliver fun and interaction in a pharmaceutical company event
At Von Peach, you can say we’re a little obsessed with making everything you can imagine a reality – and as a creative hub, where imagination runs wild, that’s no mean feat.
We’re also continuously looking for tools to help us do that, be it something old but gold like Powerpoint, which can be snooze-worthy or decked out to create beautiful slide decks that read like a storybook, or brand new out of the box technology like Augmented Reality, where possibilities are literally endless. We mix and match all these things to build memorable experiences that will leave our clients and their audience hungry for more.
“We asked ourselves “How can we keep an audience of over 500 people dialling from all around the world engaged for 3 hours?””
One of our latest projects was the planning, coordination and execution of a pharmaceutical company event, where over 500 employees were delivered a three-hour interactive online experience which culminated in an awards eve, complete with actual awards delivered to their door, plus a little AR fun for everyone in between (always better than endless zoom meetings, no?).
We kickstarted the event with our virtual host Oliver, created by our design team to guide the audience through the events of the night, and complemented real life human hosts in creating an inclusive and fun atmosphere of togetherness virtually between employees all over the world. Oliver also hosted a series of games throughout the eve, with the audience being asked to scan a QR code with their phone and entering a virtual gamified environment where, for twenty minutes, they overcame obstacles to get a high score, eventually ending in a selfie with their final score (essential for bragging rights!).
We now look back at our first AR event success story to reflect on the good, the AR-guably to be improved, and everything in between:
Why did we choose AR?
We asked ourselves “How can we keep an audience of over 500 people dialling from all round the world engaged for 3 hours?”
We also wanted to create an experience of excitement and a face to face environment in a year (or two) defined by online exhaustion, and create a safe and playful environment where employees in a pharmaceutical company could do something that they don’t very often – bring out the child in them.
The process to arrive at Augmented Reality was thought out at every step, and with the branding and regular communication material like video for this event being in 3D aesthetic, breaking the idea of boundaries and depth, AR seemed the natural next step to take.
Let’s talk emotions…
The emotions that we wanted to elicit from our audience were of Excitement, Imagination and Competition, to bring our child-like happiness. Gamification provided the perfect environment to do that.
The AR aspect together with the game, and constantly switching between mediums for the duration of the event, kept everything light hearted but still engaging. We wanted the audience to feel connected and immersed in their adventure.
At the end, we really celebrated the comments we received, with people commenting about levels and “winning the game”, exactly like the childhood mindframe we worked to bring out.
How long did it take?
The main challenge for us was creating storytelling in AR, as current technology is still a work in progress. AR is used commonly for things like face filters on social media, and it was difficult working around the limitations of current available tech to produce a full story.
However, this forced us to be creative and re-imagine the story and branding for this experience. During the five months which we worked on this event, we learnt to not judge ideas from the beginning, and that going against our own skepticism was key to making anything we can imagine a reality.
“The emotions that we wanted to elicit from our audience were of Excitement, Imagination and Competition, to bring our child-like happiness.”
What’s next for us in Augmented Reality?
We are experimenting with where AR can take us in leveraging storytelling to another level, to create even more memorable experiences unbound by industry, environment or purpose. We see that the relationship between Augmented Reality and art will be a strong one that will combine stories and beautifully curated environments to enter more areas of our life than ever before – be it events, products, learning and anything else you can imagine.
We’re really excited to explore all the possibilities that this new tech can lend creatives and audiences, wherever in the world they may be, to experience stories instead of just telling them.