Branded AR Showcase: Tiësto Instagram Filter Music Case Study

Join us in an exhilarating case study with today’s guests – Morphy Vision, as they pull back the curtain on the entire process from concept to the rollout of the AR effect! 🤓💎

Crafting this engaging AR game, inspired by the renowned DJ’s latest album – DRIVE, demanded a fusion of Tiësto’s brand and style with the essence of Formula 1. 🏎️

The result? An irresistible blend of fascination and allure! Take a look for yourself! 🏁

Background

AR filter was created to promote the new album DRIVE Tiësto – Chills (LA Hills) (feat. A Boogie Wit da Hoodie) [Sped Up]. Also, F1 Las Vegas revealed a show car for DJ Tiësto at Resorts World a few months ago.

By anchoring the digital campaign to an actual event, this strategy successfully bridges the gap between the digital and physical worlds, enhancing the exposure and impact of the new album’s launch. It demonstrates the effectiveness of cohesive retail marketing approaches that leverage both live experiences and digital media to create a captivating brand interaction that leaves a lasting impression.

Purpose of Creating the AR Effect

The main goal was to engage Tiësto followers and rouse user-generated content among them to share with their friends. Therefore we wanted to create a visually attractive and interactive filter that combines music, racing, and the style of Tiësto to be the main focus throughout the filter.

Interestingly, this AR experience contains a subtle reference to the F1 racing car lost diamond – a situation that happened in 2004. During the race, a huge diamond was lost and never seen again!

The idea Behind the AR Effect

The further history of the actual precious stone is unknown, but you can see it on the virtual Tiësto’s racing car – in the filter TIËSTO RACING AR filter you start with it and finish with it too – so in the alternative game universe, the stone was not lost.

As always, everything starts with a brief, studying the style, as you may have noticed, we like to add subtle details to the filter.

Tiësto wanted a game that would tell this story in an AR filter way. So you have to collect the diamonds to score points. It was a good starting point so we started to create sketches and concept mockups to illustrate the gameplay and to find visual style.

Creation Process

Let’s move on to development.

Much attention was paid to the racing car 3D model, as it plays an important role in the experience.

In parallel with the 3D racing car we were creating the environment. The base is the 3D model of the track and tribunes. It was necessary to add multiple visual enhancing layers like colored fog, LUT, and visual effects from the movement and interaction. Everything should stay along with the brand consistency and resonate with the audience.

On top of 3D objects and visual effects were elements of user interface and interaction – score, progress bar, hints, etc. When the filter is tightly packed with graphics and sounds, every element matters, everything needs thoughtful optimization to keep in the limits of the scene.

On the development stage there’s always some back-and-forth movement involving the development and design team, and quite some time is needed to find the best decisions for better user experience. So in this stage, we also tweaked the track shape, animations, and textures. In the end, all sparkled with the right colors.

Promotion

The filter was promoted heavily on Tiësto’s social media channels. It was also shared by Tiësto’s celebrity friends including the model Heidi Klum!

Collaboration

For this project, we collaborated with our long-time partners, the creative London studio F That. As always, the work went smoothly with a positive attitude and in the end, we created something amazing. We love such win-win symbiosis.

Conclusion

Social AR in this case gave us a powerful storytelling tool, combined with gamification, social engagement and stunning visuals. What an explosive mixture! What we love AR for is that it gives the right tools for literally every case. People react with bright emotions and engage actively with this kind of content. And, looking to the future with its AR glasses or microchipping, we understand that this kind of interaction will develop and progress along with the new technologies.