A series of Augmented Reality experiences, created for Swire Hotels 太古酒店 as part of their EAST Hotels brand relaunch. The relaunch took the form of three one-night-only events presented by EAST Hotels at each of their locations: Hong Kong, Miami, and Beijing. Directed by Zandie Brockett 張桂才 of West of Here and produced by Raygun Agency, with dance performances by Volta Collective.

For the events, Local Formations created a series of Augmented Reality experiences to launch EAST Hotel's new brand identity and image to the public. Each AR experience is an animated logo which unlocks a portal to one of the three cities.

The AR experiences are triggered by scanning the EAST Hotels logo, and run directly in the visitor's smartphone web browser, without the need for any additional apps.

Our approach centers the new EAST logo at the heart of the AR experience, by transforming it into an animated 3D portal. This makes the new graphic identity iconic and memorable, cementing it in the audience's mind.

Each portal shows stunning imagery from one of the three EAST cities: Hong Kong, Miami, and Beijing. The association of the EAST logo with travel locations reinforces the brand image as a getaway destination, allowing the user of the AR experience to literally and instantly "arrive at a diffent place".

The orientation of the AR content matches the orientation of the physical marker in the real world. For example, a marker placed flat on a table produces an aerial top-down view of the city:

And a marker placed vertically on a wall produces a forward-looking view of the city:

The imagery is a combination of live-action footage and CGI elements for stylization and narrative continuity.

On their phone, guests open a link that they receive by email/SMS, QR code, or manual typing - and this opens a web-based AR scanner which allows the guests to scan physical EAST logos located throughout the hotel.

Guests encounter different scannable EAST logos throughout the hotel - from giant projections to drink coasters and more. Scanning these logos triggers the AR experiences, rewarding the guests for exploring the hotel space.

For the guests, this encourages a playful exploration and an active engagement with the physical space, rather than a purely digital or passive experience.

Event documentation by Melody Timothee, Kenny Laubbacher, and Oasis Imagery.