AR Treasure Hunt App - Sydney Marathon
A web-based AR treasure hunt for the Sydney Marathon that guided thousands of runners and spectators to scan posters, unlock partner rewards and climb a live leaderboard - no app download required.
At a glance
- Event challenge
- Create a large-scale interactive experience that engaged thousands of marathon participants and spectators arriving from multiple entry points across the city - merging digital excitement with physical movement while highlighting local businesses, cafés and hotels offering exclusive rewards.
- Audience action
- Scan, unlock, compete
- Technology built
- WebAR · GPS mapping · Rewards engine · Leaderboards
- Live environment
- Sport / city campaign
- Result / proof
- Thousands of participants engaged with the hunt, discovering exclusive offers, collecting points and sharing achievements online - a seamless fusion of sport, community and technology that drove real engagement with local partners far beyond the finish line.
- Why it worked
- A citywide WebAR treasure hunt that turned the marathon into a connected adventure.
The brief
Create a large-scale interactive experience that engaged thousands of marathon participants and spectators arriving from multiple entry points across the city - merging digital excitement with physical movement while highlighting local businesses, cafés and hotels offering exclusive rewards.
The idea
Turn the city into a digital playground. The moment anyone arrived at a marathon entry point they could start a personalised treasure hunt, following a live map to nearby posters and scanning them in AR to unlock rewards.
The experience
Participants followed a live interactive map to strategically placed posters, switched to AR camera mode to scan and instantly unlock coupons and partner offers, earned points through mini games, climbed a global leaderboard and finished with an AR victory selfie and a personalised digital achievement card to share.
The technology
A browser-based AR platform built for thousands of concurrent users - scalable web infrastructure, AR-enabled scanning, GPS and mapping APIs for dynamic location-based treasures, and a partner portal to manage offers and poster placements, all tuned to perform even on poor connectivity.
The result
Thousands of participants engaged with the hunt, discovering exclusive offers, collecting points and sharing achievements online - a seamless fusion of sport, community and technology that drove real engagement with local partners far beyond the finish line.
Included to demonstrate relevant interactive technology, delivery experience and audience engagement capability.
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