Royal Ontario Museum launches its first AR-based social media campaign, creating the opportunity for anyone to swim with great whales in key Toronto locations.
TORONTO, July 26, 2021 – ROM is inviting Torontonians to experience the thrill of swimming with the largest animals that have ever lived using a new augmented reality (AR) activation on Snapchat. Launching July 26, this activation—a ROM first—offers Snapchatters three distinct experiences to summon great whales out of the ocean and into their phones.
The Snapchat AR lenses are part of an integrated multi-platform media campaign for the launch of Great Whales: Up Close and Personal, a major new ROM-original exhibition running July 16, 2021 to March 20, 2022. Great Whales invites visitors to explore the fascinating and enigmatic world of Earth’s largest animals, featuring three real whale skeletons, fascinating science and large-scale audio and video experiences.
Designed to evoke the size and incredible scale of the great whales that swim off the North Atlantic coast, Snap’s sky segmentation technology provides the backdrop for a blue whale to come to life in the platform and swim across the screen at two key Toronto locations: ROM’s Bloor Street façade and the downtown waterfront. The lens is activated via Snapcode at four locations (ROM and Queen’s Quay at the intersections of Jarvis, Spadina and Rees) and will be available starting July 26 until the exhibition’s closing.
Snapchatters will also be able to use the platform’s Face Lens to virtually swim with the whales or summon a blue whale to appear anytime, anywhere with Snapchat’s 3D World Lens.
ROM Snapchat lenses and Great Whales ads will be promoted with placement in Snapchat Stories and through the Discover tab. The activation is part of a larger media campaign in support of Great Whales that includes OOH, broadcast, radio and a takeover of ROM’s Bloor Street façade featuring a to-scale chalk drawing of a whale that allows passersby to walk the length of a life-size whale and measure its size in strides.
Media for the Great Whales campaign is by ROM’s MAOR, OMD, with creative developed by BT/A in collaboration with Broken Heart Love Affair and photographer Thomas Dagg.
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