Send Chinatown Love
Using Snapchat’s latest technology to celebrate local Chinatown Businesses in the aftermath of the COVID Pandemic
Snapchat partnered up with the foundation and saw it as the perfect opportunity to showcase their latest AR tech, “Custom Landmarkers” – which allows AR integration with any real-world location, in this case, the YU&ME Books in Manhattan.
Yu & Me Bookshop
My team at QReal was tasked with coming up with the whole concept, from basic R&D to storyboarding, and asset creation to final lens development and deployment.
On-location research was fundamental since this AR experience would exist in a specific location. I personally visited and interviewed owners, employees, and customers and came out with a message of community building and the joy of reading.
Development
I decided to create hand drawn characters based on the many cultures of New York and have them enjoying the wonderful feeling of reading a great book next to their favorite bookstore.
The YU&ME Books was launched during the 2022 Chinese Lunar new year festivities, together with the “Year of the Tiger” experience, which I also oversaw. Both were a big success and were featured by Snapchat and local TV news.
Partea – Claw Game
After the success of the “YU & Me Books” lens, Snap and the “Send Chinatown Love” organizers, came up with another store to be “augmented”, this time in Flushing, Queens. Partea is a fun arcade and boba tea parlor, so our team came up with the idea of turning the entire storefront into a giant claw game.
Again, with custom landmarkers technology, the Snap camera is able to recognize unique features of the store’s entrance and seemingly integrate CGI elements to its surroundings, without the need of a traditional printed marker.
To further advertise the lens, the owner agreed to give free boba to the lucky customer who managed to get a randomly generated golden AR boba in the lens!