WANT TO KNOW HOW AN AR FILTER ENGAGED 1 MILLION USERS? HERE’S HOW:

Sources say, the dramatic shift in technology is having a noticeable effect on how modern companies are approaching their own marketing. Smartphone and AR technology has provided a new way for consumers to interact with their favorite brands; product placement is now product interactive.

While Instagram users around the world were having a blast with Disney filters, Wit and Chai formerly known as Nilgiri Social collaborated with Glitch and UberEats India to come up with an Instagram story filter. We launched “Eats in a Blink” – a gamified AR filter and capitalized on that ongoing Disney trend. Blink blink and flutter those lashes of yours, we said!

This AR led game, playable on Instagram, invited users to blink away to win vouchers for food. #EatsinaBlink, was the hashtag created for this campaign and it focused on UberEats’ promise of a speedy delivery.

To enter the contest, Instagram users could follow the @ubereats_ind account and tap on an AR face filter that unlocked the game in Stories.

The game tasked one with blinking their eyes in order to deliver food to various homes and businesses. Let’s see how. The experience began with players tapping on their screens to begin recording gameplay. The camera then opened to show an AR leaderboard over the user’s forehead. Below, a tiny UberEats delivery driver would be zipping throughout a small city; their job was to blink at every green building to complete a delivery, with each delivery being worth one point.

Players would then post their scores on Instagram stories for all of their followers to see. In some cases, players taunted friends by tagging them.

Also, “Eats in a Blink” gave you three chances to score big, which meant players needed to be on top of their blinking game. And the player with the highest score by the end of the campaign, which ran between December 19th to December 24th, would walk away with free meals for an entire year with a 1,09,500 rupee limit. The next two foodies on the leaderboard win delicious meals for three months (food worth Rs. 27,000 each) and that seven lucky foodies stand to win delicious meals for a month (food worth Rs. 9000 each.)

Free food means happiness to everybody in this world. And this filter proved so with a whopping response of over 1 million people opening up the Instagram app on their smartphones in the hopes of securing the top spot. Food as the prize acted as the key incentive in driving engagement with potential customers, while helping to build an Instagram following for Uber Eats India.

Thus, “Eats in a Blink” was undoubtedly much more than just a game and it was clear yet again, that AR technology is poised to play a significant role in the future of marketing.

UberEats was the first brand to have worked with AR on Instagram and totally nailed it! With the recognition that this campaign achieved, it was not just acknowledged globally but also accredited for.

We opine that gamification of ideas is a great way to be sticky in an attention deficit world of social media. Since the name of the brand was integrated in the filter, brand recall was high. A user opens Instagram multiple times in the day and offering a simple, easy to play and short game was an effective engagement tactic.

For a digital first audience, this was a fun way of integrating the brand’s value proposition while keeping it engagement driven. We fondly remember this one, and we’re sure so does the world!