Coca-Cola AR Trophy
Interactive WebAR trophy experience for Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages
Overview
Dallas-based Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages (CCSWB) is one of the largest Coca-Cola bottlers in the United States, serving happiness to more than 31 million people.
When their employees crushed it in the 2024 Market Street Challenge, CCSWB wanted a way to celebrate that felt more personal than a mass email or a quick round of applause. My challenge was to create something fun, shareable, and meaningful to highlight their success. But how do you celebrate a company-wide win when there’s only one trophy? I set out to bring the trophy to them.
Working alongside Trace Element, I helped CCSWB turn a traditional recognition moment into an interactive AR experience that felt personal, playful, and perfectly on-brand.
The Idea
I designed a custom WebAR experience that launched straight from a postcard—no app download, no extra friction. Scan the QR code and a 3D trophy appears, locked to your face, with celebratory confetti animations filling the screen. The experience let team members pose, snap a photo, retake if needed, and share instantly. I built in details that made it feel fun but also practical for wide use:
• 3D Face-Tracked Trophy — naturally sits with the user in selfies
• Confetti & Visual Effects — a celebration you don’t have to clean up
• Photo & Share Functionality — easy to save, send, or show off in the group chat
• Preview & Retake Options — because not every first photo is perfect
• Custom Share Copy & Metadata — keeping everything consistent and on-brand
How We Built It: From Sketches to Selfies
I started with a quick journey-mapping exercise to outline the user flow and pinpoint moments that could feel fun and memorable. From there, I modeled the trophy in Blender using only a handful of reference photos—carefully matching its size, shape, and texture without the help of scans.
Inside 8th Wall, I tested everything: trophy tracking, confetti particle levels, and performance across devices. To make the experience feel natural, I anchored the trophy to the user’s nose bridge for a selfie-ready effect.
To speed up development, I also leaned on custom GPTs—using AI to generate WebAR code snippets and troubleshoot software quirks. This gave me shortcuts in prototyping while still keeping the experience polished.
Once the build was in place, I ran rounds of hands-on testing, tweaking visuals and refining the photo-taking UI until the whole flow felt smooth, playful, and easy to share.
The Result: Trophy Vibes, No Shipping Required
The AR experience gave CCSWB employees a smart, fun way to spotlight their team win—complete with a digital trophy and plenty of confetti (without the cleanup).
Why It Worked
No logistical headaches — just scan and celebrate
Instant emotional impact — seeing yourself with the trophy makes the win feel real
Share-worthy — built for the camera roll and group chats
Culture-forward — a playful way to embrace new modes of recognition
The confetti’s still falling, the digital trophy is still being passed around, and the celebration continues—champagne (and Coke) included.
