Christmas magic in augmented reality for INTU

Client

INTU

Deliverables

Two-storey Christmas tree
Built-in augmented reality experiences
Custom app

Captivating Intu Christmas shoppers with augmented reality

Capturing customer attention over the busy Christmas shopping period can be difficult, particularly in Newcastle where there are some of the nation’s best shop window displays to compete with. To make sure they kept flustered shoppers’ attention, Intu Eldon Square needed a powerful, eye-catching and interactive Christmas display.

Eldon Square tasked us with creating a large-scale interactive experience incorporating more traditional festive decor with innovative, accessible augmented reality games.

Bringing the fun back to Christmas shopping

Going beyond the traditional Christmas shopping centre display, the Intu augmented reality experience was designed as a fun break from rushing around the centre to buy gifts.

The primary digital experience was chance to see a magic door open, letting kids peek inside the tree to see Santa sat by the fire surrounded by toys and presents. As well as a chance to peek inside Santa’s grotto, kids (and big kids) could use the app to bring to life a fun game of whack a mole, and interactive ‘tickle-able’ mushroom characters.

The app and augmented reality experience was designed to be highly shareable on social media. The tree also gained huge traction from word of mouth, creating a real buzz locally.

AR whack-a-mole
AR mushrooms
AR Santa’s grotto

Improving Eldon Square with customer data and social sharing

There were other benefits alongside the playful purpose of the Intu Christmas app, allowing data collection and useful insights to help improve brand recall and penetration.

Customers were given the opportunity to win Intu gift cards by snapping a selfie by the tree and sharing it to Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #intuchristmas.

The app was a big success, exceeding targets set by Intu Marketing with over 1000 downloads.