The most important thing to come up with before the challenge is the creative brief for our community to know what the task is, what they can win and how. It also should inspire them to come up with a one of a kind project.
Lenslist x Meta Spark
Storytelling with AR Hackathon: Bringing 3D Objects to Life
Together with Meta Spark, we hosted a challenge aiming to fulfill two goals at once – to motivate AR Creators to develop storytelling AR experiences and then to prompt them to share their story in the form of an Instagram Reel. On top of that we really focused on interactivity and including 3D objects in the effect. With a $50,000 prize pool this challenge became a great treat for AR Creators looking to test their skills with a monetization opportunity right in front of them.
quick recap
234
No. of Submissions
162
Creators, who submitted
38
No. of Prizes
$50,000
Prize Pool
60 countries
Reach & Diversity
Briefing Period
Creative Brief and Custom Landing Page
With each challenge also comes a custom landing page (not a branded template), designed to communicate our partner’s mission and image, combined with our voice, the community knows so well.
Next to the LP, we also develop a custom registration and submission form, adjusted to the needs of our partner and made in accordance with GDPR security and privacy standards, making sure that all the data we gather is safe and secure.
Another important task to tick off during the pre-launch phase are the Terms and Conditions. We create this document with our legal team for each and every challenge.
Submission Period
Outreach Campaign
With the submission period open for 4 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:
The channels we used:
Lenslist SocialsInstagram, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, Discord – with more than 35k friends, followers or members on board.
Our Mailing ListProbably the most comprehensive AR yellow pages existing.
Social Media DMsDirect and not automatized communication is the key to connecting with our community.
On top of our promotional efforts, we also organized and hosted two workshops featuring tutorials and Q&As from some of the most active and skillful Creators.
Isabel Catherine Yayla (or @icybitch3d) gave us an amazing lesson in 3D modeling and optimization based on a custom-made experience she developed just for our workshop. Mitsuko Ono – a storytelling master – showcased her making-of process behind one of her iconic AR effects ‘Got Your Nose’.
The Results & Selection Period
As a result we got over 230 submissions – both AR effect and Instagram Reel included. Over 160 Creators and teams took part in the challenge and the level was really, really high, considering only very versatile and skillful Creators had a chance to win a part of the $50,000 prize purse. Thanks to judges from Meta helping us out, we managed to pick the 38 winning effects – explore a taste of them 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
Huge thanks to all participants – not only your AR effects, but all the content that was created as a result of this AR Challenge was an amazing confidence boost not just for our team, but for the whole AR Community. Also, considering the diversity and reach of the challenge, we’ve learned about many different traditional tales and stories from all over the world. Last but not least, the results speak for themselves – generating over 230 complex storytelling AR effects within one month is a definite win!
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 AR Fashion Month Challenge 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 Instagram followers count of an AR Creator is ~10k. Hundreds of AR influencers, followed by thousands of AR users in a price of one campaign with an influencer;
Boosting the innovative, creative and collaborative image of your brand = checking off all three most valuable tenets of web3/metaverse marketing approach.
Contact us to learn more about AR Community Challenges and take on the challenge yourself!