How exactly do you take a live experience that was intended to be the centerpiece of SAP’s global developers’ conference SAPPHIRE NOW Converge conference (held online June 15-19) that brings 30,000 of their users to Orlando, Florida, and turn it into an engaging, interactive one? If you’re Kommune|NoSlate, the ideation and content production studio focused on using immersive content and technology to create inspired brand experiences, you design an online interactive piece that feels like it actually was built to exist in the real world.
That’s exactly what happened: Pre-pandemic Kommune|NoSlate (a frequent collaborator with business software leader SAP), working in concert with the interactive design studio Master of Shapes, Inglewood, CA, were tasked to create a fully-immersive physical activation spotlighting a fictitious sustainable water bottle company called Commit Water.
Opportunity For Innovation
Real-life attendees would engage with a full-scale, walk-through experience showing the end-to-end process of how SAP technology and data analysis enable designing, building and delivering personalized and sustainable products. Had the event had happened as planned, attendees would no-doubt all be clutching these reusable sleek, personalized water bottles available in five different colors.
However, all that changed when barely a month out COVID-19 forced the Kommune|No Slate and Master Of Shapes teams to undertake one of the more extraordinary corporate pivots ever — re-imagining this massive live experience into a purely digital one.
Or, as Kommune|No Slate Executive Producer Jeff Reed calls it, “turning a seemingly intractable challenge into an opportunity for innovation.”
“For this, we had the usual challenges of timing, budget and quality as we adapted the experience from the real world to a digital one, but from a strategic perspective we had to bring the online audience on a behind-the-scenes journey of this company's complex end-to-end process,” Reed says. “We needed to show everything from customer experience to procurement to manufacturing to finance to delivery, without losing the immersive wonder of being inside this proverbial chocolate factory. Also, we couldn't lose the individualized experience of each visitor creating their own product, from personalized design to physical delivery.”
Wonderful Canvases
They did this by mounting a complex, yet Covid safe, live production in which high-rez HD cameras and robotic camera rig moves were married to immersive 3D animation technology, emulating the live experience Kommune|No Slate and Master Of Shapes envisioned from the get-go.
“We wanted to make sure we left the users with an inquisitive thought of ‘is this real, practical, 3D animation? How did they do this?” Danny Zobrist, Kommune|No Slate Creative Director says. “All the physical set pieces were wonderful canvases for highly-integrated, synchronized animation. It’s incredible to be able to finish a project like this at the highest level despite a global shutdown.”
Adam Amaral, Creative Director at Master Of Shapes, adds that the project utilized multiple disciplines that all came together to make something cohesive and engaging.
“SAP is behind the scenes the backbone of a lot of companies but it's hard to tell that story without showing an example,” Amaral says. “I think what this project communicates is this idea of escape. You don’t know what to expect when you go on the site and you just explore and engage on so many levels. For it to be so seamless between the physical set pieces, animation, sound design, the interactive component and ultimately creating this brand and world of Commit Water, is incredible.”
New Kinds Of Branding Experiences
Looking ahead, Reed notes that as more and more businesses grapple near-term with having more branding experiences virtually, the creative community needs to rethink how we can incorporate our industry into a more relevant future for audiences.
“The fundamentals haven't changed that much, it still comes down to awe-inspiring, brag-worthy experiences that people remember to talk about long after they're over,” Reed says. “How we deliver that to a decentralized, largely at-home audience, is only limited by our imaginations.”
Try the Commit Water interactive online experience here. You can also go behind-the-scenes here to see Kommune|No Slate and Master Of Shapes made it happen.
About Kommune|No Slate
Kommune|No Slate is an ideation & content production studio with a focus on emotive storytelling. Through immersive content and technology, they produce inspiring visuals and brand experiences. Their creative team develop meaningful concepts, build complex visuals and installations, tell powerful interactive narratives, design architectural projection-mapping, program real-time data visualizations and power brand activations. With a combined 35 years of industry experience in film, commercials, music videos they have embraced a creative background in live-action, editorial, design and motion graphics to create memorable content for the biggest brands in the business. Some clients include SAP, IBM, UnderArmour, UCLA, Lexus, Nike, Samsung, Honda, Disney, Nintendo, Target and Wix. For more information go to: www.kommune-noslate.com.
About Master Of Shapes
Master of Shapes is a space surfing, geometry taming, buffalo riding, Future House. A design-driven interactive studio specializing in making the impossible. Made up of creative visionaries, gamers, directors & technologists we work together to create innovative world-class experiences. For more information go to: https://masterofshapes.com/.
