Bubble-tea brand offers a squishy, squirty AR experience

AR experiences are often pretty disappointing, but a new campaign by Aussie bubble-tea purveyor Chatime and creative agency Special at least provides something offbeat and unique.

Mind you, 'unique' here includes a shiny blue grub-like creature filling a cup with tea, milk, and boba pearls straight from its own udder—only to drink the resulting concoction and repeat the process. Some might find that gross enough to swear off bubble tea for good. But you can't deny it's unexpected.

The ‘Satisfy your strange’ campaign includes a crew of odd characters that are designed by Scottish digital artist Sam Lyon to look squishy and shiny, just like the tapioca blobs that give bubble/boba/pearl tea its names.

Some of the AR animations in the campaign eventually offer up a discount code, according to the agency.

Special developed the campaign's media strategy, which is being delivered in collaboration with Love Media and Wired Digital. It launched with a teaser campaign around Sydney and Melbourne, followed by a national street-furniture campaign. There's also a TikTok partnership and challenge.

You may be able to scan the QR codes in the images below, if you really want to. Ad Nut was only able to get the blue slug one to work, and not on all phones Ad Nut tried.

CREDITS

Client: Chatime
Chief Marketing Officer : Joanna Robinson
Head of Marketing: Claire Fabb
Creative Lead: Helen Dean
Marketing Executive: Samantha Van Prehn

Creative Agency: Special
CEO & Partners: Lindsey Evans & Cade Heyde
CCO & Partners: Julian Schreiber & Tom Martin
Strategy Partner: Dave Hartmann
Creative Directors: Nils Eberhardt & Simon Gibson
Creatives: Jeff Seeff & Joel Grunstein
Creative Technologist: Laurent Marcus
Head of Media Strategy: Georgia Thomas 
Business Director: Laura Little
Business Manager: Dharsh Sundran
Executive Producer: Sonia Ebrington
Integrated Producer: Emily Willis
Head of Design: Adam Shear

Artist / animator: Sam Lyon- Jelly Gummies
AR build: Unbnd
Retouching / animation support: Electric Art

Media agency (OOH): Love Media
Managing Director : Tony Woodward

Media Agency (social): Wired Digital

Ad Nut is a surprisingly literate woodland creature that for unknown reasons has an unhealthy obsession with advertising. Ad Nut gathers ads from all over Asia and the world for your viewing pleasure, because Ad Nut loves you. You can also check out Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame, or read about Ad Nut's strange obsession with 'murderous beasts'.