Tag: Instagram filter

Sydney, Australia – Creative agency We Are Social in Australia has rallied its support for Australian independent charity The Kids’ Cancer Project with a new pro bono campaign encouraging people to support the charitable cause.

The Kids’ Cancer Project aims to raise money to fund scientific studies that look into better treatments and ultimately a cure for brain cancer, which is the biggest killer by disease among children.

To collect funds, The Kids’ Cancer Project has launched ‘Pirate Day’, a day where people dress up to raise funds for childhood brain cancer research, and was first observed during 2015.

We Are Social has partnered with visual effects company Alt.VFX and through its visual studio T&DA, have created an augmented reality (AR) filter for Instagram, which aims to provide an opportunity for people to virtually dress up as a pirate and show their support online using #PirateDay2021.

The ‘ARRRR filter’, a Spark AR Filter for Instagram and Facebook, lets users dress up as a pirate. After donating on PirateDay.com.au, users can also unlock the special parrot, Rosie, by entering the code in their donation receipt. The filter, developed by Alt.VFX’s visual effects studio T&DA, can be accessed via the @TheKidsCancerProject Instagram page.

The agency has also enlisted TV stars and social media influencers like Olivia Vivian, Ben Polson, and Mel Schilling to join the initiative and nominate their friends to do the same, helping spread awareness of the charity day among their followers and drive further use of the filter and donations.

“Childhood brain cancer is a horrible disease, and one that has affected my family directly”, says Ewan Harvey, copywriter at We Are Social. 

“We are incredibly proud to put our creativity towards a worthy cause and, with our partners at Alt.VFX, help The Kids’ Cancer Project raise much-needed funds for research,” he added.

Singapore – As the lockdown in Singapore eases and employees can now return to the office, advertising agency BBH Singapore has launched an interactive 8-bit game on Instagram called ‘Back to the Office’, which trains corporate staffers to be workplace-ready again.

The game players will take on the role of an employee at BBH Singapore, and are tasked to avoid maskless colleagues, duck from client briefs for a post-COVID-19 world, and escape an overcrowded pantry that breaches social-distancing guidelines. To power-up, players are tasked to grab as many COVID-19 essentials as they can, such as energy drinks and toilet paper rolls.

According to BBH Singapore, the game is the agency’s way to get people to celebrate returning to the office as the nation prepares for an easing of guidelines. It is the ultimate game of post-WFH survival.

“The return to the office is a big milestone for Singapore, and we hope that this game helps to ease the transition in an unexpected way. Hopefully, it helps to combat some Monday work blues,” said Christine Lim, the art director at BBH Singapore.

On 5 April, the Ministry of Manpower in Singapore announced that up to 75% of staff can now return to the office.

Malaysia – In its continuing foray to integrating augmented reality (AR) into their marketing projects, local-based digital marketing agency Webqlo announces a new Instagram AR filter for Taiwan Excellence, a movement that promotes Taiwanese products and services.

The Instagram filter is developed in line with Taiwan Excellence’s “#EverydayExcellence Selfie & Win” contest for Malaysian participants, and encourages users to use the filter, share it on Instagram and Facebook to grab a chance to win prizes from the contest holder. .

The contest promotes engagement on Malaysian users to look into the promotions of Taiwan Excellence, including Taiwanese products, services and businesses.

“We’re very excited to work with them to launch this #EverydayExcellence contest as a new way to engage with their audience and also to try out AR, which is new to the brand. This is inline with the brand’s focus on innovation and response from the audience has been very encouraging as well,” Cherrie Koay, head of digital for Webqlo stated.

Koay also added that brands are increasingly investing in interactive strategies like this in a way to create more engagement in a digital aspect.

“Interactive experiences like AR and VR are fast becoming an integral part of social media marketing, especially during this pandemic. We’re seeing a lot of brands investing in AR and VR to engage with their audience in more immersive and interactive ways digitally. From launching fun branding filters to offering experiences that are typically only available in-store, brands are leveraging on these technologies to blur the lines between the virtual world and the real world.  These new technologies are definitely here to stay and will change the way we consume social media,” Koay said.

Webqlo has also worked with other AR-related projects before, including brands such as South Korean cosmetics brand LANEIGE and ZA Cosmetics.