Club Brugge AR city experience went beyond borders

Overview

Project
synopsis

130 years of Club Brugge. 130 years of No Sweat/No Glory & Bluvn Goan, that calls for a celebration. And we were glad to contribute to the festivities. The question? A way for Club to celebrate with everybody—big fans and small fans—and help them and tourists find a way to the new fan shop.

Challenge

The idea was to organize a guided tour. Nothing spectacular, you think? Well, think again. They wanted their fans’ experience to be a bigger and bolder one. One that makes every supporter feel they can join the party. We gave them the augmented birthday party they'll never forget.

Collaboration

Everybody who loves a blank canvas says I. I!

Who would have guessed football would take the lead in the adoption of AR? The collaboration was as smooth as can be. The courage of Club to dive into new technology, the experience of partner agency Bits of Love and our enthusiasm were like three peas in a pod. Club took a deep dive into the possibilities of AR. They are uber professional when it comes to marketing and communication and thus a delight for us to work with.

Experience

We are Bruges.
We AR Bruges.

With seven AR activations, this interactive tour brings to life the rich history of the club with you as a protagonist. Shoot some penalties against Mignolet, take a picture with your favourite player and do it all on your phone while walking around town.

Little pieces of ARt

A revolutionary campaign

The belfry experience was a little piece of art. We placed a marker on the Belfry to map a 3D version of the building on top of it. With this 3D version, we went wild, adding an animation of a Club icon kicking the tower to pieces.

Part video, part 3D, combining cinema 4D and regular video images, all these layers add up to one big GLB coded in 8thWall. We topped off the cake with a 270° projection mapping experience at their pop-up city fan shop, revealing the 130 years Club Brugge shirt.

Character design

There were challenges along the way. Like rebuilding a keeper in 3D that can’t keep still, or including the many supporters in the walk. The latter we did by visualising them holding up the tifo on a big banner in the city. A bunch of lingo to say; we pulled out the big guns.

Impact

Up and over
all expectations

The tour lasted from 30 Oct 2021 until 31 Jan 2022 and let’s say the numbers are baffling. Each AR activation was connected with their CRM platform, keeping track of the number of unique participants and if they visited all of the seven attractions. In three months' time, we gave 31K fans a bigger and bolder experience and the website which was created for this tour was viewed over 170K times. When starting this project, we knew Club had more than a solid local community to tap into.

But with this campaign, Club found a revolutionary way to create international brand awareness as well: tourists from 58 different nationalities, from Australia to Panama, joined their augmented party, putting Club on the (international) map. Perhaps it was the combination of technology and tradition? Or is it because the whole family can join in? Or maybe we just found the sweet spot. Sweet. Can we go again?