A Week in Web AR: 2020 Holiday Edition

Westfield Turns Its Malls Into a Holiday Scavenger Hunt, The Good Crisp Company Delivers a Message From Santa, Patrón Lets Users Wrap Their Own Joy Around a Bottle and Dior Gives the World an AR Gift

by Tom Emrich

It’s the most wonderful time of the year and this festive season brands are turning to WebAR powered by 8th Wall to bring the joy, wonder and magic of the holidays to everyone — no matter where they are.

Go on a Holiday-Themed Scavenger Hunt at Westfield Malls Across the USA

Twenty-two Westfield shopping centers across the USA are now the destination of a large-scale, augmented reality holiday-themed scavenger hunt.

By scanning a QR code at participating Westfield locations, The Holiday Hunt takes shoppers on a magical adventure through the mall to uncover 10 virtual Christmas-themed characters including dancing gingerbread people, snowmen, a Santa Claus face filter, a Nutcracker, reindeer and more — each providing the opportunity for a selfie or video recording that can be shared with friends and family. Upon finding all 10 characters, players are awarded with exclusive promotions and offers to redeem at participating shops.

Created by COFFEE Labs, The Holiday Hunt is the world’s first web-based augmented reality (WebAR) scavenger hunt to take over US malls and provides a fun and safe way for shoppers to get into the holiday spirit while browsing for gifts at their favorite shopping centers.

“While this season may look a bit different, we still wanted to create experiences that not only make it fun and festive to shop, but keep health and safety top of mind.” says Anthony Sion, Senior Vice President — New Business Development at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, owner of Westfield shopping centers in the U.S.

Sion continues, “That’s why we joined with COFFEE Labs to develop and execute a virtual Augmented Reality experience at 22 Westfield shopping centers across the U.S. The Holiday Hunt was developed to entertain as well as deliver offers from our retail partners over the holidays in a safe and socially-distant environment.”

The Good Crisp Company Spreads Holiday Cheer With a Message From Santa

To help spread some holiday cheer this year, The Good Crisp Company is using augmented reality to turn their canister into a winter wonderland complete with a special message from Santa.

Created by Aircards, the WebAR holiday experience requires no app to download. Instead, customers simply click a link and point their smartphone camera at The Good Crisp packaging to watch animations of snow swirl around the canister before Santa pops out to deliver his message. Customers can then take a selfie with Santa and send this photo to their friends and family.

“Knowing that Christmas will look, feel and be different this year, we wanted to find a way to spread more cheer through our packaging. This technology is brand new to our consumer, and what better way to launch it than with Santa!” says CEO and co-founder of The Good Crisp Company, Matt Parry.

Grab a canister of crisps and get a message from Santa here.

https://youtu.be/tRBkbg8zHfY

Customize a Virtual Bottle of Patrón Tequila and Send It to Friends in AR

Patrón has the perfect gift for you to give this holiday season—a virtual bottle of tequila which you can customize with your own designs and memories. From the Patrón website, create a custom virtual bottle by choosing from a series of templates and adding photos, stickers and personalized messages. Once done, send the link of your customized virtual bottle to family and friends so they can view it in augmented reality.

Created by ROSE, this first-of-its-kind user-generated WebAR experience doesn’t require a bottle of Patrón to participate but if you have one the experience is taken to the next level. Using 8th Wall’s image target technology, you can scan the Patrón Tequila box to watch your customized virtual bottle magically emerge from the packaging.

“This work represents a historic moment not only for PATRÓN but for WebAR as a whole. This experience is the first of its kind for the spirits industry, pairing user-generated content with Web-based AR renderings,” says ROSE founder and CEO Evan Rose.“The cherry on top is that the team brought this idea from concept to reality in such a short time.”

Create and share your own one-of-a-kind PATRÓN virtual bottle here.

Dior Gifts the World With Its Luminarie-Themed AR Packaging Experience

Just in time for the festive season, Dior is giving everyone a gift this year using the magic and wonder of augmented reality. Leveraging designs and scenes from its 2021 Cruise Show, Dior has released an augmented reality gift box which features ‘luminarie’ and celestial-patterns that come to life right before your eyes.

Created by Atomic Digital, this augmented reality experience was launched across a variety of platforms including Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook as well as 8th Wall Web AR.

Unwrap this fairytale festive packaging by opening this link on your smartphone.

Tom Emrich is VP of Product at 8th Wall. A version of this post originally appeared on 8th Wall’s Medium, contributed here with permission.

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