Context
In 2022, Coca-Cola launched the Coke Studio initiative, to create ‘magical’ collisions between artist worlds. With their new song ’Be Who You Are’ being released - featuring Jon Batiste, J.I.D, New Jeans, Cat Burns and Camilo - the agency VMLY&R chose UNIT9 to produce an immersive virtual record store to promote the music video.
'Be Who You Are' featuring Jon Batiste, J.I.D, New Jeans, Cat Burns and Camilo
A workshop to align stakeholders
With a lot of stakeholders involved (Coca-Cola + VMLY&R + UNIT9) and a short timeline, it was essential to create a tight collaboration. We organised a workshop in two parts: defining the concept and creative direction together, and testing an early prototype using persona hats and defining key user objectives. I was responsible for organising and facilitating this second part of the workshop which gave us actionable insights about different possible user expectations.
NB: Next time, I would like to directly involve the different user archetypes into the workshop.
Persona hats and interactive prototype created for the workshop and tested by the U9, VMLY&R and Coke Studio teams
A key interaction to increase immersion
After the workshop, we were lacking a key element to unify the experience. I got the idea of using the store’s turntable to transport users into artist-specific worlds. This is done by manually placing the record and dragging the needle - a playfully interactive way to illustrate how Coke Studio turns music into magic.
Design method: Storyboard + Wireframing
Turntable interaction - storyboard by creative team & recording from live website
A strong design collaboration
While already working tightly with the creative director, onboarding a freelance UX designer was crucial for the success of the project due to our tight timeline. After I established a general UX timeline for the project, I collaborated with our freelancer who helped to design wireframes and navigation principles, that I then turned into a more complete interactive prototype.
Research method: Low-fidelity prototyping
Design collaboration structure on the project
An interactive 3D musical world
Uniting skills and expertises, our team collaboration resulted in a detailed 3D virtual record store where users engage in looking for hidden records, immersing themselves into artist worlds and collecting easter eggs along the way. At the end of the experience, the pieces come together to build the promoted song ‘Be Who You Are’, featuring renowned artists from all regions of the world.
Recording of the 3D record store environment
Results
The Coke Studio Record Store was successfully launched in July 2023 on Coca-Cola’s Creations website for people to immerse themselves into the magical world of ‘Be Who You Are’ (10+M views on YouTube). The project won a FWA of the Day award.
Journey map and flowchart of the experience
Credits
Production: Erin Ray, Mindy Lubert
Project Management: Nadaa Baqui
Creative Direction: Shelley Adamson
Tech Lead: Krzysztof Wyrzykowski, Esteban Almiron
UX Design: Sebastian Ervi, Nuria Quero
Visual Design: Pedro Custódio, Rafal Mierzejewski
3D Design: Halil Tiryaki, Mehmet Emin Güzel, Enes Yaman
Audio: Dani Valkova
Motion Design: Adnan Parthib, Bela Bako, Viktor Anisimov
Illustration: Vero Gomes, Miguel Sastre
Copywriting: Alex McGill
Development: Anton Matrosov, Piotr Czubak, Lukasz Osiecki, Caio Bassetti, Michal Tegi
Quality Assurance: James Stokes, Magnus Rolen, Fabrizio Rossi, Pretty Gilbey, Vicky Sharpe, Pani Nicola, Stephanie Thorpe
