AKQA: Winterlands

Insight

The twinkling of snowfall is forever mesmerising – whether outside your window or within a snow globe. Winterlands, our holiday card for 2014, harnesses the latest innovations in WebGL to bring the magic of winter into the palm of your hand.

Seeking always to merge art and technology in new ways, we pushed to its limit what 3D can do in the mobile browser – creating a rich virtual environment that does not demand users download extra software.

Idea

Winterlands can display 14 interactive snowscapes – one for each AKQA office and one generic – all presented in full 360°. Move your phone in any direction to travel through and explore them – even make more snow fall with a shake of your hand.

Send a personal greeting to your loved ones via email, SMS or social networks. They will be transported to Winterlands where your message awaits – to share in the holiday season wherever they are in the world.

Impact

Within a month of launch, 55,000 people had visited Winterlands from 139 countries and shared a remarkable 22,000 times. A truly global success, Winterlands broke into the Asian mobile market – one fifth of users coming from China – with the US and France following just behind.

Attracting worldwide media interest, Winterlands has earned FWA Mobile of the Day, and the FWA and Adobe Cutting Edge Award.