Published on 6th Sep 2022
Lucozade Energy + Xbox Halo UX & Digital Product Design
What an explosive and exciting campaign! If our Ribena + Hasbro run wasn’t enough, we’ve achieved yet another remarkable milestone for Lucozade Energy.
Lucozade Energy + Xbox Halo FMCG Campaign Entry Design, by Chris Watterston
From digital ideation to AR story boarding, I set out to bring the widely recognised Lucozade Energy + Microsoft Xbox and Halo Infinite Brands to life. The brands gave consumers a chance to win with every bottle purchased, through on-pack QR Codes, AR engagement and galaxy exploration.
For this particular case study, we’ll be focusing on the area I was responsible for, the digital and web entry mechanics. Areas I planned, collaborated, designed, and continued product managing through to consumer prize fulfilment.
"Chris has been instrumental in the success of our latest Lucozade Energy x Xbox on-pack offer (OPO). His planning from user journey through to execution has been key to delivering the businesses top performing consumer promotion. He understood the importance and balance of both brands (Lucozade Energy + Microsoft Xbox) in terms of the look and feel and developed a consumer experience like no other OPO we’ve done before."
"It was also fantastic to have easy access to real time data which informed decision making and importantly kept stakeholders abreast of the performance."
"Chris is not only fantastic to work with from a capability perspective and the ideas he brings to the table, but also his approachable manner makes him a pleasure to work with."
Roxana Parvizi - Sr Brand Manager for Lucozade Energy
Objective
This was Lucozade Energy’s first campaign partnered with Microsoft Xbox. Everyone was so excited and proud to have had this opportunity to work with two awesome brands. We (the @TED Team) got straight down to business.
Lucozade and Xbox Halo Infinite gave consumers 2XP and the chance to WIN an Xbox Series S with every pack.
Lucozade Energy appeals to a wide audience of both older and younger folk, but making an explosive entry into the gaming community– this was serious! No-one knew exactly how the brand would perform in such as deep space (pun intended), gamers didn’t consider Lucozade Energy relevant or part of their gaming lifestyle. How would they react?
Performance would be measured through brand penetration, number of on-pack QR Code scans, web mechanic entries, and grocery/convenience feature and space (inc. in-store & online).
We were powered to make this become the talked about campaign of 2022, ensuring we brought Microsoft Xbox and Halo Infinite along for the ride!
My Role
Similar to the Ribena + Hasbro campaign, my role was to manage and ensure the success of the campaign from a web and technology standpoint.
This involved taking the top level activation idea and filtering this through the web entry mechanic for consumers. I managed the delivery of the entry ideation and AR story boarding, wider team and brand collaborations, QR codes for on-pack, legal and ASA alignments, consumer prize fulfilment, and microsite design and front-end development. (the list goes on…)
This was Lucozade Energy’s first campaign to feature Web Augmented Reality (AR) technology that allows players to interact with the game virtually via a browser-based experience. This was an in-entry mechanic experience, with an accessibility and privacy fallback. Tapping into the gaming community through the popular Halo Infinite game, we set out to bring the widely recognised Halo holographic galaxy to life. We gave consumers a chance to win with every bottle purchased, through on-pack QR codes, AR engagement and galaxy exploration.
"I can’t speak highly enough of Chris. He’s incredible at what he does, adds so much value to any project or partnership and is an absolute joy to work with too!"
Phil Goldsmith - Assistant Brand Manager for Lucozade Energy
When it came to the back-end development of the consumer web entry mechanics and hosting infrastructure stack, I worked closely with our partner @Holograph in brining this to life. This also included AR support from @ARize.
Agile Digital Product ManagerDigital DesignerUI & UX DesignerFront-End DevelopmentAgile Digital Product DesignDesign System Designer
Metrics
583,620
Entries
221,347
Unique
404
Winners
At the promotions half way point, we’d already seen extraordinary results– but nothing prepared us for the response from the gaming community. Our target audience were focussed on the British Isles ONLY, but we received huge waves of engagement from excited gamers in over 110 different countries from around the world!
At closure, we couldn’t have asked for a better array of results. We’d excelled the brand set entries goal by 16.72%. When it came to unique entrance numbers, 10.67% over expectation.
* These figures do not include the 3 month wrap-up period.
"Chris drove the incredible digital journey which created part of our Lucozade Energy + Xbox and Halo partnership this year. Through the use of AR, Chris designed an immersive, amazing micro-site for consumers to enter the biggest and best partnership in Lucozade’s history!"
Phil Goldsmith - Assistant Brand Manager for Lucozade Energy
In addition, the Lucozade Energy consumer email subscription opt-in figures also grew a staggering 2402.52% throughout this campaign period compared to last year– OMFG!
Learnings
It’s one thing running an activation just for the British Isles, which was our intention. But it’s something else having an activation explode world wide. Engagement from gamers in over 110 different countries. Something we didn’t factor in.
This had the wizardry development team at @Holograph on their tiptoes. We were taking agile campaign management to a whole new level!
Throughout the lifecycle of the campaign, we deployed a series of updaters for the web entry mechanics. Mainly from learnings taken along the way. These included things like; entry email verification, geo-location blocking, high risk email domain blocking, 2XP limitations, and proof of purchase requirements.
All learnings we’ve ensured will be factored and built into the brands next campaign.
*Due to confidentiality, I am unable to share all our learnings.
Gallery
Partners
TED Team (Suntory GB&I In-house Creative Agency)
The TED Team are the in-house creative agency set within Suntory GB&I.
Working along side the Suntory brands located at their head office (literally holding hands), the team are able to use their skill set to develop and execute and achieve creative, impactful campaigns. A skill set spanning across strategists, designers, copywriters, producers, developers, social, and so much more. The team delivered a lot of the marketing campaigns you’ve seen on TV, OOH, online, bus sides, etc.
Over the years, the TED Team have been crucial in delivering campaigns, such as ITV Love Island, Missguided, Tomb Raider (Larazade) Xbox Halo, Hasbro Gaming– to name just a few!
Holograph Digital
Everyone has a story. Holograph’s involves helping brands tell theirs via exceptional digital experiences.
Throughout the years, we have accomplished this by developing proprietary websites and eCommerce systems for businesses of all types, sizes and geographies. But we are always evolving and have expanded into other sectors such as machine learning, AI, robotics and wearable technology. We never settle, and neither should you. That's why we continually extend our Digital Experience Platform (DXP) to ensure we push the boundaries within the IT industry and deliver you the most highly innovative products and online 'connected' solutions we can.
We've learned how to scale for our clients, offering 'nodes' of Holograph to our customers to allow them to manage significant parts of the hosting process themselves or keep data where they need it.
For more information about Holograph, visit holograph.digital.
ARize
Founded in 2018, ARize is an industry leader in the 3D and AR industries. With an ethos of putting the power into the hands of the creators, their vision is revolutionizing e-commerce, blockchain technologies and metaverse spaces. ARize is on a mission to bring 3D and AR capabilities to everyone, supercharging the visual experience it brings.
For more information about ARize, visit arize.io.
Microsoft Xbox
Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the name of Xbox Game Studios.
Fore more information about Microsoft Xbox, visit xbox.com
Halo Infinite
Halo Infinite is a first-person shooter game developed by 343 Industries and published by Xbox Game Studios. It is the sixth mainline entry in the Halo series, and the third in the "Reclaimer Saga" following Halo 5: Guardians.
Fore more information about Halo Infinite, visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_Infinite