Burberry Trench Experience

The brief was to design and create a unique ultra high profile multimedia experience for its VVIP customers, which would take them on "an enchanted journey of discovery" through a magical and ethereal landscape with meaningful real-time interactions between the virtual and physical worlds.

At the core of the scheme, was the need for this experience to be driven through direct integration with WeChat through a bespoke mini program. This was designed to provide the unique invitation to the customer, but also the unique post experience content captured from within the space.

Recursive developed the system architecture, interpreting the creative intent into a physical solution that could allow four different unique immersive worlds based on four core themes across the natural world, triggered automatically from social interaction and with the generative content adapting each time to each user’s unique movements within the space.

The team made use of the Unreal Engine combined with nDisplay and Touchdesigner to create a real-time rendering environment system with the workload distributed between several workstations which could be controlled by depth sensing technology to track a user's interactions with the virtual environment created.

Bespoke tracking and control was developed based on our own in-house system and using multiple depth sensors. The system makes use of a point cloud approach to be able to view the user from multiple angles through interpreting the depth data in real time. Skeletal tracking was also implemented to drive real-time graphical objects within the Unreal environment which translates the user’s skeletal movements into data via Touch Designer. The outputs from this also control physical elements within the space such as dynamic lighting, nano winches, hazers and a unique 360 immersive audio system all in real-time.

The integration of technology with the store and throughout the customer journey has set a new benchmark across retail and has elevated Burberry further amongst the Chinese market.

The one of its kind secret trench experience acts as the ultimate reward across the Burberry WeChat mini program, immersing customers as they drive complex particle systems, deform objects and interact with flora and fauna by reaching out and changing their position in the physical space whilst a magical story unfolds around them. The real-time interactions across both the virtual and physical make this space completely unique in its user experience.