AR Asset Hackathon

Snap AR x Lenslist

AR Asset Hackathon

Snap, one of our top partners, wanted to create an AR Challenge, yet not for Lenses, but assets used to create them. The goal was to generate new content for their Lens Studio asset library and this way unlock fresh creation possibilities for all creators and developers, who create their AR experiences using Lens Studio. With 100 prizes and a $40,000 prize pool, we were ready to launch this new virtual hackathon format.

quick recap

507

No. of Submissions

200

Creators, who submitted

100

No. of Prizes

$40,000

Prize Pool

~50 countries

Reach & Diversity

Briefing Period

Creative Brief and Custom Landing Page

Before launching any AR challenge, we work with our partner to come up with a creative brief, that would not only inform, but also inspire our community to take part in the challenge. This time the brief was much more technical than usual, since we were focusing on specific types of assets meeting all Lens Studio requirements.

Then we designed a custom landing page (not a branded template), made to communicate our partner’s mission and image, but also include all necessary information, examples, learning resources and FAQ.

On top of the LP, we also built a custom registration and submission form, adjusted to the know-how needs of our partner and made in accordance with GDPR security and privacy standards, with data hosted on our own servers. Here the submission form was uniquely extended, due to the multiple types of assets we welcomed in this challenge.

Last, but not least – as the challenge Organizer, we come up with Terms and Conditions together with our legal team and based on our multiyear expertise. Without this document, no challenge can be launched or conducted!

Submission Period

Outreach Campaign

With the submission period open for 5 weeks and thousands of people in our AR Community to reach, we ran 3 rounds of outreach with the ongoing, cross-platform promotional activities.
The channels we used:

Lenslist Socials

Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, Discord – with more than 35k friends, followers or members on board.

Our Mailing List

Probably the most comprehensive AR yellow pages existing.

Social Media DMs

Direct and not automatized communication is the key to connecting with our community.

On top of our outreach efforts, we also created and published multiple articles related to the challenge, aiming to inspire potential participants, and also give them all the necessary information about each type of assets we were welcoming during the submission period.

The Results & Selection Period

As a result we got over 500 submissions – all types of assets, starting from materials and textures and finishing with 3D models, VFX, lines of code or instructions. There was also huge variety when it came to the theme and style of the assets – from educational, technical or utility to fashion, entertainment and beyond.

This time our partner Snap took the lead on judging and selecting the winners, considering the winning assets were about to be placed in their Lens Studio asset library. Take a look at some of the winning assets below!

Once the winners are selected, we start the prize fulfillment process right away. With all the necessary paperwork needed to be signed to transfer the prize money to all different countries, with a data validation piece on top, this process takes a couple of weeks, but considering our experience in the field, we take care of the process from start to finish with no unnecessary issues or delays.

Final Thoughts

This hackathon was definitely much different than our regular AR Challenges with AR experiences as entries, but overall the experience was very positive for all parties involved – AR Creators were happy to share their assets aiming to enable other Creators to develop their skills further and our partner Snap received tons of quality content to charge their asset library and democratize their software even further. Thank you to all participating Creators and our amazing partner for this one of a kind experience, and successful one at that!

This challenge proves that this format can work for all types of innovative brands. Why?

Hundreds of Creators developing AR experiences within your brand’s image, mission or campaign means thousands of people create content using these effects at the same time = more visibility, organic reach and brand awareness;

AR Community is ready to come up with high quality content, creative designs and well-developed 3D models (see the winners!);

You can license AR experiences you like most = wide spread of inspired work to choose from instead of 2 or 3 creative proposals from your agency;

AR Creators are social media influencers of creative spaces online and have global reach – the average followers count of an AR Creator is ~30k.

Boosting the innovative, creative and collaborative image of your brand = checking off all three most valuable tenets of web3/metaverse marketing approach.