Oh, Snap! Giant diplodocus discovered on roof of NHM
December 23, 2019
A huge dinosaur has popped up at the Natural History Museum…and it’s getting festive! A new ‘Snap Lens’ has been created by
Official partner
Arcade is an official Snapchat Lens Creative Partner, meaning we have been identified and accredited by Snap as having the creative and technical skills to design and deliver world-class Snap Lenses. If you’re interested in exploring how Snapchat can engage your audiences, give us a call!
To learn more about SNAPCHAT and what it can do for your business, read on or contact us
What is snap?
Whilst Snapchat rose to fame as a messaging service for kids, allowing them to short visual messages that expired after reading, it has evolved into a global social media giant. Along the way, its leadership identified AR as a key tool for visual communications, and pioneered the development of cutting edge AR technologies.
Given the nature of the SnapChat userbase, these are typically used for silly, fun experiences designed to make you laugh and share – but the technology at work is amongst the best in the world. This gives creators like Arcade – and the brands and organisations we create for – a platform to quickly and easily develop AR experiences with enormous impact.
HOW CAN A SNAP LENS WORK FOR ME?
Snap Lenses focused initially on augmenting the face – using increasingly advanced facial tracking technology to trigger and anchor AR content in relation to the parts of the face such as head, eyes, nose and mouth. These experiences are quick and often very funny, and can be enjoyed by absolutely anyone. Lenses like these have fast become a staple of marketing campaigns, promotions and more, being instantly available to every Snap user on the planet.
Of particular interest to Arcade, given our mission of connecting people to place through play, is another type of Snap Lens, which uses the rear camera on users’ phones to augment the physical environment. Below are two example of this, the first an AR poster campaign for our clients at WNO, the second that uses the iconic frontage of London’s Natural History Museum as its canvas.
So whether you want to engage audiences in ‘selfie’ mode anywhere around the world, or visitors to a particular physical location, Snap Lenses are well worth considering.
NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
This Lens allows visitors to the city’s Natural History Museum to discover a giant, festive diplodocus that appears to have taken up residence on the museum’s roof. The new diplodocus is a scaled-up version of the plaster cast fossilised dinosaur that used to take centre stage in the museum’s famous Hintze Hall and was, from 1979 to 2017, the iconic emblem of the museum.
Snapchat users are able to access the specially developed Lens when they are close to the Natural History Museum – specifically within sight of the famous entrance on Cromwell Road in South Kensington. By selecting the Lens and pointing their phone at the building, they can see and hear the diplodocus, and enjoy the prehistoric wintery scene.
WELSH NATIONAL OPERA
To support the immersive experience A Vixen’s Tale, opening in Cardiff on October 5th, we added a hidden surprise to the #WNOfollowthevixen poster campaign across the city.
Using a custom lens for Snapchat, built in Snap’s Lens Studio, we created an AR experience that transforms posters into the 3D world of the Vixen, showcasing refrains of the opera and introducing audiences to the Vixen herself.
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Find me a fox and make it Snappy
September 6, 2019
Arcade have published our first Snapchat lens as a part of our work with Welsh National Opera. To support the immersive experience