Multidimensional Tomorrow | 2018
An immersive brand environment to launch a dual-screen, foldable smartphone at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Visitors discover a speculative future where people and devices exchange information faster than ever over 5G.
Client: ZTE USA
Audience: press, developers
Project Role: experiential creative lead, art direction, interaction design
Tunnel to Tomorrow
The experience began in the fully-immersive 5G Future Tunnel. Once inside, visitors traversed an expanse of shooting stars projected onto the floor. This peculiar optical illusion, along with environmental soundscaping, created the feeling of being carried inside a river of digital information. Guests discovered environmental infographics and animated videos describing the 5G infrastructure and devices that ZTE was developing for connected cities of the future. The tunnel opened up to the center of the exhibit space to reveal ZTE’s hero product, the Axon M smartphone.
Product-inspired experience
Competition for audiences’ attention is especially fierce at CES. Everything about the experience needed to be captivating while reinforcing the Axon M story. The exhibit architecture, reminiscent of the Axon M on its side, created a dramatic, angled ceiling which was clad in mirrored fabric to reflect 4 synchronized LED screens below. Just like the multiple screens of the Axon M, the LED screens in the exhibit functioned in three modes: continuous, mirror, and multitask. Colorful, captivating content could be spread across all 4 screens in continuous mode or displayed identically on each screen in mirror mode. In multitask mode social media and product presentations were broadcast simultaneously on separate screens.
Holding court
Several times throughout the day the 4 screens became a digital arena where 3 lucky visitors were invited to compete in a virtual free throw tournament celebrating ZTE’s NBA sponsorship. Motion-sensing cameras and software enabled each participant to control a basketball player avatar on the LED big screen. The winner of the tournament advanced to a head-to-head shootout with NBA legend Robert Horry.
Multitask mix n’ match
A playful touch screen matching game let users explore multi-screen-mulit-tasking scenarios like watching cat videos while answering work emails or streaming Netflix while scrolling Instagram. Users match top and bottom halves of illustrated characters (a cat wearing a business suit, for example) to reveal the use case scenario and win the game.
Reflections on success
The ZTE exhibit’s optical illusion architecture, immersive 5G tunnel, and myriad of interactive experiences earned a top-10 spot in Exhibitor Magazine’s Best of CES list.