Superheroes are descending on Austin, Texas.
Ally Financial teamed up with DC Comics and WarnerMedia on a yearlong initiative to celebrate, elevate and support diverse creators across art, entertainment and fashion, and the partnership will kick off at South by Southwest with an immersive augmented reality experience on Snapchat.
“Milestone ARchives” was developed by R/GA, Ally’s digital creative agency, and it features a multilevel AR experience on Snapchat where users travel between floors to meet Hardware, Icon & Rocket and Static, superheroes within DC Comics’ Milestone universe, and learn their backstories.
It includes interactive games centered around the characters and lenses for each superhero that enable Snapchatters to step into their shoes and share the results with their friends.
The SXSW Snapchat AR experience is part of the Milestone Initiative Talent Development Program from Ally, DC and WarnerMedia, in which a class of diverse comic artists and writers are being trained and mentored for one year.
Snap said a study it conducted with Alter Agents found that AR on Snapchat is 1.7 times more immersive than on other platforms, and Snap internal data revealed that its community accesses AR lenses more than 6 billion times per day on average.