Leveraging its unrivaled expertise in “brand in the hand” AR-activated experiences, innovation studio Tactic announces a partnership with 8th Wall to launch its latest work for Blue Diamond® Almond Breeze® — a webAR experience that gives users an inside look into the places, people and work that make Almond Breeze one of the most trusted brands in non-dairy milk products.
The campaign represents an innovative use of the technology for Almond Breeze, featuring an on-package augmented reality experience. But, unlike many AR experiences, the offering is app-free, created using web-based AR using 8th Wall’s webAR library. Users can go to ar.almondbreeze.com on their mobile device or be directed there via an on-package QR code. Then it’s as easy as pointing the device at any carton of Almond Breeze® Almondmilk, Almond BreezeTM Almondmilk Yogurt or Almond BreezeTM Almondmilk Creamer to be taken into an AR journey that lives within the packages, or to have a tour of a miniature AR orchard for those without the packages.
Taking inspiration from the brand’s existing integrated campaign, Tactic created a script, divided into chapters, and told a farm-to-table story about the Blue Diamond Growers cooperative of growers, as well as Almond Breeze®’s ingredients and packaging.
“Our almonds have been perfected over generations, and it all comes back to the dedicated farmers who grow them to give our consumers the most delicious, highest quality almonds in products of all kinds of tasty shapes and forms,” said Almond Breeze® Group Marketing Manager Micah Keith. “With many people turning to their smartphones to get information on products these days, we wanted to launch our own virtual AR experience to help consumers understand how our Almond Breeze® products get from orchard to shelf.”
To accomplish that, Tactic used a multi-faceted approach to deliver the Almond Breeze® story.
“We tried to boil down the essence of what the brand is about in a series of key scenes that would really convey the hard work, love and care that these families put into delivering the final product,” explains Tactic President Peter Oberdorfer. “We also suggested a visual menu of alternating recipes that could be updated dynamically from season to season as needed.” This and more are all presented in a series of animated dioramas that appear within the package, through a portal that slides out from the packaging’s signature diamond-shaped logo.
The Almond Breeze® team had a large in-store fridge execution planned in March 2021 and collaborated with Tactic to expand the on-pack AR experience to consumers in the store. “We aligned around the idea that the store’s fridges were a great anchor point from which to trigger the AR, and we created an experience customized for the shoppers in the space,” continues Oberdorfer. Triggered by a QR code featured on Almond Breeze® signage on the store refrigerators, the AR experience launches a huge, full diorama of an almond farm on any open space in front of the user. Including a farm with a barn, animated delivery trucks, a field of blossoming almond trees, beehives, a brook and roadway, the experience allows users to freely move around the AR scene at their leisure.
“Tactic really helped bring our vision to life with both the on-the-carton and in-store experiences,” said Keith. “We are one of the first brands to use AR in this way, and now consumers can explore Almond Breeze® in a way that has not been done before.”
Collaborative and excited to explore new creative technology, the Almond Breeze® team proved to be a natural fit for AR, allowing the company to work remotely on the project during the pandemic. “They immediately understood the medium and began concepting with us in adding interest and engagement to the experience,” stresses Oberdorfer. “It helps that AR activations are inherently digital and purposefully decentralized, so that all the participants can view and interact with the projects in real time. Even during the pandemic, everyone could easily stay on the same page.”
With this latest experience from Almond Breeze®, Tactic begins to chart a new direction for an AR space they pioneered, away from native apps and toward more web-based applications, leading to quicker and easier use and hopefully greater adoption of the technology industry-wide. “It’s really come a long way in the past year because of the improvements in this web-based format, as well as the ever-increasing capabilities of mobile devices, browsers, and web AR platforms in general,” continues Oberdorfer. “But for us, the technology is just a part of the puzzle. ‘Brand in the hand’ AR, whether in the web or native-app context, is still about the challenge of telling entertaining stories. For our work for Almond Breeze®, delivering on that challenge was definitely a lot of fun.”
About Tactic
Tactic is an immersive creative and production studio situated at the convergence of design and technology. Its team of engineers and designers specialize in experiences and products centered around new digital formats: virtual reality, augmented reality, gesture tech, mobile apps, and real-time 3D experiences made with game engines.
About Blue Diamond
Blue Diamond Growers, a grower-owned cooperative representing approximately 3,000 of California’s almond growers, is the world’s leading almond marketer and processor. Established in 1910, it created the California almond industry and opened world markets for almonds. Blue Diamond is dedicated to delivering the benefits of almonds around the world and does so by providing high-quality almonds, almond ingredients, and branded products. Headquartered in Sacramento, the company employs more than 1,800 people throughout its processing plants, receiving stations and gift shops. To learn more about Blue Diamond Growers, visit www.bluediamond.com and follow the company on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.
