Innovating Virtual Experiences and Advertising for GE
I love innovation and learning new technologies. So spearheading the growth of our agency network’s capabilities to help GE Appliances stand out in the “Virtual Showroom” space was one of the most fun and fulfilling experiences of my career. As CCO at Scoppechio and other entities in The Ovare Group, I worked with our agency producer to build a new production company called, The Three. As part of building out this team, we saw an opportunity to help our largest client, GE Appliances, create better, more immersive interactive experiences on social, in advertising and online.
The Problem: The rise of eCommerce and a global pandemic made customers want to virtually bring appliances into their homes to try before they buy.
The Solution: Leverage 3D and CG technology to craft virtual appliances and kitchens that could facilitate innovative AR, VR and web experiences that allow customers to experience products without leaving their homes.
What We Did: First, I helped hire a creative technologist who specialized in 3D and CGI construction and experiences. I then identified and sold in GE projects and opportunities where we could innovate and test our virtual experiences. Methodically over a year, I was able to concept, sell in and infuse the use of this new technology into numerous projects across GE’s house of brands.
The Results: I led the charge in creating AR filters that allowed customers to drop appliances right into their kitchen, interactive web experiences that allowed customers to stand in a virtual kitchen and get information about products as they viewed them, and many other virtual experiences. Our new paid and organic media activations saw a dramatic increase in engagement that led to higher sales and conversions. And we did the foundational work that allowed GE to try out interactive experiences on their new D2C sites ushering in new ways to educate and sell.
From Wireframes To Virtual
Each project started by designing the kitchens or spaces in a way that were stylistically right for the brand and the targets across the GE portfolio. We’d build mood boards for textures, props and colors, then create simple line drawings to show intent and placement. From there, we’d work with our CG artists to craft and refine the spaces. Once the spaces were complete, the team would utilize CAD files to help create pixel-perfect CG products.
Virtual Showroom Experiences
One of the most interesting uses for the assets we’d create were virtual experiences. I had weekly meetings with my interactive team lead, Max Hartz, and our creative technologist, Brandon Clements, to think about ways to bring these assets to life in paid media, social and on GE’s DTC and partner sites. We crafted AR experiences that allowed customers to drop products into their home via social. We created interactive experiences online where customers could drop themselves into our scenes virtually and get up close and personal with the products. We helped customers try out the products by dropping them in their homes in a variety of finishes to see what might look best. Some of my favorite experiences are below.
Star Wars Partnership
As part of GE’s partnership with Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker, we crafted a one-of-a-kind social/AR experience that allowed customers to visit a Star Wars-themed kitchen through a portal and then test features of the products in a very “Star Wars” kind of way. Like using the force to fill up a pitcher with the wave of your hand. This showed off the GE fridge’s real feature that used motion sensor technology to automatically fill different containers without spilling.
This AR/social activation was one of the top performing pieces of media in the entire campaign exceeding KPIs and conversions by 28%.
Interactive Experiences and Virtual Showrooms
Check out some of the examples below of how we created virtual kitchens and assets and then used those assets to create interactive experiences for GE’s various sites and social channels.
Using Spark AR To Create Unique Social and Paid Media
Meta’s Spark AR tool was a game changer for my social team and our full-funnel paid media buys. We leveraged Spark AR on numerous occasions to create interactive ads that allowed our fans and customers to place refrigerators, coffee makers, dish washers and more into their spaces to get a real feel for how they might look in their home. These new units had huge increases in engagement and leads and became the most successful parts of our paid social media plans.
GE Cafe Assets
We created a variety of custom virtual kitchens for Cafe that were meticulously designed and fashioned to match the latest kitchen trends and the brand. We could change the props to refresh the kitchen at any time. Change colors and textures. And change the finishes and features on the products to show a wide aesthetic range. We used the virtual builds in paid media, social and to create interactive web and AR experiences too.
