Avaturn x Nike: How Bonjour Lab studio topped interactive experiences with no code
Nike & Bonjour Lab
When we picture Nike, iconic slogans, legendary sneakers, and athlete endorsements instantly come to mind. Over the past five decades, Nike has consistently astonished the world with its premier marketing campaigns, setting new standards and pioneering innovative strategies. One such groundbreaking example was Nike's partnership with Michael Jordan, which revolutionized athlete endorsement deals. This marketing prowess has propelled Nike to become the world's largest sports apparel company.
Most recently, Nike has continued to push boundaries by venturing into the realm of interactive experiences and gaming collaborating with brands like RTFKT and Fortnite. This forward-thinking approach led them to seek the expertise of Bonjour Lab, a creative studio renowned for its interactive visual creations.
Bonjour Lab faced a formidable challenge: to surprise Nike, a brand that has consistently amazed the marketing world with its innovative ideas for three decades. Their answer was to empower Nike customers to craft realistic avatars and immerse themselves in the latest Nike outfits, including the cutting-edge Air Max Pulse. The experience extended beyond try-ons; it enabled users to share their personalized avatars with the world. Imagine seeing your customized avatar displayed alongside sports icons like Warren Zaïre-Emery and Enzo Lefort on massive LED screens. Bonjour Lab transformed this vision into reality.
Project realization
Bonjour Lab was faced with a unique challenge: to create a high-impact, immersive experience for Nike and asked us for a low-code/no-code solution. This presented an ideal opportunity to test the capabilities of our new asset manager, which empowers creative studios to fully customize their domain without writing a single line of code.
Step 1: Creating PSG players Avatars
Bonjour Lab's initial task was to create realistic and engaging avatars of Nike athletes, capturing the essence of PSG's young star Warren Zaïre-Emery and Olympic gold medalist foil fencer Enzo Lefort. Recognizing the importance of preserving these athletes' identities, Bonjour Lab utilized Avaturn's realistic avatar creation platform, streamlining the process and eliminating the need for traditional in-person scanning sessions.
Leveraging Avaturn's technology, Bonjour Lab efficiently generated high-fidelity avatars from simple selfies provided by the athletes themselves, Bringing these iconic athletes to life in the virtual world with remarkable authenticity. This approach not only saved time and costs but also ensured that the avatars accurately represented the athletes' appearances, from their facial features and hair.
Step 2: Customizing the virtual environment
Bonjour Lab's next step was to customize the virtual environment to match Nike's branding guidelines. For us, this presented a great opportunity to showcase the capabilities of our new asset manager, a powerful no-code tool that streamlines the process of integrating brands into virtual experiences. The Asset manager intuitive interface and drag-and-drop functionality enabled Bonjour Lab to quickly and easily upload logos, colors, and other visual elements into the virtual world. Creating an environment that was authentically Nike, immersing users in the brand's identity.
Step 3: Uploading all the assets
The process of incorporating Nike's latest garments into the virtual experience required a solution that would combine efficiency with the ability to cater to a diverse range of body types Avaturn's AI-powered asset management system played a pivotal role in ensuring inclusivity and reducing the workload. By uploading each garment only once, Bonjour Lab's team could take advantage of Avaturn's AI capabilities to automatically simulate the garment on each of the five body types selected for the project (five for female and five for male). This innovative approach ensured that every user could see themselves represented in the virtual environment, fostering a sense of connection and engagement.
Dive into our video guide to discover how to leverage the Asset Manager for easy garment uploads. This screencast provides a visual walkthrough, showcasing the seamless process of incorporating custom garments into your virtual experience.
Learn more about uploading garments to your space in Avaturn
Step 4: Delivering an immersive virtual experience
The final step involved integrating real-time user scans into the 3D scene that will be projected on giant screens. Bonjour Lab's team created the scene in Blender and utilized Avaturn's technology to dynamically replace placeholder avatars with real-time scans of participating users.
Avaturn's rigging system ensured that pre-recorded animation adapted seamlessly to the body types of the users in real-time. This eliminated the need for individual motion capture sessions, streamlining the process and ensuring a consistent and engaging experience for all participants.
Through Avaturn's technology, Bonjour Lab successfully overcame the challenges of traditional motion capture and delivered an immersive virtual experience featuring lifelike and engaging avatar for a truly personalized and interactive experience for Nike customers.
Learn more about animation with Avaturn
Summary:
Nike, a brand renowned for its innovative marketing campaigns, sought the expertise of Bonjour Lab to create a high-impact, immersive experience for its customers. Bonjour Lab, in turn, utilized Avaturn's realistic avatar creation platform and no-code asset management tools to bring this vision to life. The result was an interactive experience where users could create personalized avatars, try on Nike's latest apparel, and see themselves displayed alongside sports icons on massive LED screens. This collaboration showcases the power of technology to create engaging and personalized experiences for brands and their customers.