Uber Eats India created an Instagram Stories AR filter to give away a year’s worth of food.
Instagram users around the world are having a blast discovering what Disney character they are using a now-viral roulette-style Instagram AR filter. All you have to do is aim your smartphones forward-facing camera at your face and open your mouth, blink your eyes repeatedly, or smile to stop the wheel from spinning and view your selected character.
In an attempt to capitalize on the latest online trend, Uber Eats India launched “Eats in a Blink”, their own gamified AR filter on Instagram Stories that tasks you with blinking your eyes in order to deliver food to various homes and businesses. 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 food for an entire year with a 1,09,500 rupee limit.
The experience began with players tapping on their screens to begin recording gameplay. The camera then opened to show an AR scoreboard over the user’s forehead. Below, a tiny Uber Eats 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.
“Eats in a Blink” gave you three chances to score big, which meant players needed to be on top of their blinking game.
The campaign was a huge hit with over 1 million players opening up the Instagram app on their smartphones in the hopes of securing the top spot. However, “Eats in a Blink” was much more than just a game. It was designed to increase brand recognition by exposing users to a promotion they could not only interact with but potentially benefit from as well.
Mobile Marketer reported that roughly 1.36 billion individuals around the globe played mobile games in 2019, with 36% of gamers being between the ages of 25 and 36. It’s also being forecasted that mobile gaming will rise by 22.5%. This dramatic shift in technology is already 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.
Mobile games made up 60% of global game revenue in 2019; “Eats in a Blink” was just one of many interactive AR games designed to connect users with brands. Earlier in 2019, Jimmy John’s created a Snapchat AR filter game where users had to catch digital sandwiches in their mouths. Meanwhile, major brands such as Star Wars, Stranger Things, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell have all successfully employed their own AR filters as part of various promotional campaigns.
With over one million people have played “Eats in a Blink”, it’s clear that AR technology is poised to play a significant role in the future of marketing.
Feature Image Credit: Uber Technologies Inc.
