Creative Technology · WebAR · Social AR · Experience Design Role
Malfy Gin × Pernod Ricard
Client: pernod ricard
Year: 2025
Role: Creative Lead — Concept & Experience Design, UX/UI Oversight, 3D Design, Client Collaboration
Challenge / Context
Pernod Ricard wanted to introduce Malfy Gin to UK audiences through something that captured the atmosphere of the Amalfi Coast rather than simply reproducing its visual identity.
I led the concept development and 3D/UX direction for a location-aware WebAR campaign designed to transform everyday surroundings into short interactive moments of escapism.
The creative direction centred on the sensory vocabulary already present in the brand: citrus, colour, travel, architecture and summer. Audience work focused the experience around a style-conscious, social user profile — the “Stylista” — helping align stakeholders around the tone, ambition and balance between realism and fantasy before the interaction itself was defined.
Moodboards and early concepts explored several possible activation formats before converging on a choice-led journey that allowed users to build their own version of a Malfy summer moment.
The Approach
The final WebAR journey used a multiple-choice mechanic to guide users towards different experiential outcomes.
Because an interactive journey cannot be communicated as cleanly through traditional advertising storyboards alone, I developed journey mapping, storyboards and supporting visual documents that explained the stages, user choices, interactions and eventual payoff to brand, agency and technical stakeholders.
The experience launched through QR codes on 300,000 limited-edition bottles, alongside out-of-home and point-of-sale media. Location data was used to adapt content to the viewer’s surroundings.
I built modular 3D assets in Blender with mobile WebAR constraints in mind, including polycount, texture-memory use, shader complexity and texture atlasing.
In parallel, I led the UI/UX direction, testing combinations of conventional 2D controls, spatial tap zones and visual guidance so users could understand the interaction confidently in bright, uncontrolled outdoor environments.
The aim was to preserve a premium branded feel while keeping the experience fast enough and simple enough to work as a real consumer activation rather than a technology demonstration.
The wider campaign also included a second AR experience focused specifically on social shareability.
I led development of a playful fruit-and-flower headpiece filter that allowed users to create and share their own Malfy Moment. The experience was optimised for Instagram and Facebook, including fast-loading design and a built-in beautifAication treatment suited to lightweight social use.
It was later rebuilt in Snap Lens Studio, extending the campaign into another social AR ecosystem while retaining the same visual language and summer positioning.
Outcome
The campaign was subsequently scaled to five additional regions, translated into two languages, and became runner-up at the 2025 Campaign Experience Awards.
Across the rollout, the work spanned audience strategy, brand interpretation, interaction design, realtime production, social AR and international deployment.
300,000 bottles · 5 additional regions · 2 languages · 2023 Campaign Experience Awards runner-up
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