Ahead of launching the challenge, we worked 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.
Lenslist x Spark AR
Tomorrow Today - What will the next decade bring?
This challenge was a first for us in many ways. It was conceived in partnership with the UAE National Program for Coder’s HQ, Dubai’s Museum of the Future and two brand partners: Emirates Airline and Accenture – the first branded activation on our platform! This was also the first challenge with an IRL prize ceremony and our first virtual destination created not for the web, but a VR or MR headset. The task for our community was to create AR effects for one of two tracks inspired by our partners: Emirates Airline with Mobility of Tomorrow and Accenture with Opportunities of the Future, for a chance to win up to $6,000 from the $52,000 prize pool.
quick recap
414
No. of Submissions
248
Creators, who submitted
40
No. of Prizes
$52,000
Prize Pool
64 countries
Reach & Diversity
Briefing Period
Creative Brief and Custom Landing Page
Each and every challenge we host, has 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. This time, we also created custom 3D assets to brand the activation in the most innovative way possible and draw even more attention to our challenge.
On top of the LP, we also built a custom registration and submission form, adjusted to the know-how needs of our partner and in accordance with GDPR security and privacy standards, with data hosted on our own servers.
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 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:
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.
Apart from our outreach and promotional efforts, we also organized and hosted two workshops and an Office Hours Q&A featuring some of the most active and skillful Creators: Balraj Bains, Kym Fiala, Beth Wickerson and Okuhle Fallet.
Balraj delivered a super engaging tutorial on how to use Hand & Body Tracking based on an effect she made together with Beth Wickerson and Gijsbert Wahl called Infinite Reach. Kym showcased the making-of of his viral effect Predator vs Prey to explain how to conceptualize and create a World AR effect.
The Results & Selection Period
As a result we got over 400 submissions across both tracks and most of them could be deemed winners – the quality level was really high, so we had to test them carefully. This futuristic theme truly inspired our community and it showed. Explore and try the top winning effects 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 & Virtual Gallery
This challenge was a great experience both for us and our Creators’ Community. For some of the Creators, it was the first time they created an effect with a brand in mind, which got them closer to professionalizing their skills. Huge thank you to all participants, your works were truly coming from the future! Another reason this challenge was one of the kind is that Meta together with Dubai’s Museum of the Future organized an actual Awards Ceremony, inviting winners from all over the world to come to Dubai. On this occasion, we created a VR gallery that you can also explore on the web.
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.
Contact us to learn more about AR Community Challenges and take on the challenge yourself!