ABP Food Group and ASDA Enlist Aircards to Develop Augmented Reality Cooking Demonstration

ne of Europe’s leading food processors, ABP Food Group provides quality beef to thousands of customers across the world. The company wanted to create an immersive experience to promote the latest Asda own-brand ‘Extra Special’ Wagyu steak range. 

ABP Food Group and ASDA enlisted the expertise of leading WebXR agency Aircards, to develop an interactive and immersive WebAR experience which featured a fully custom 3D animated scene, demonstrating how to cook the perfect Wagyu steak. This included seasoning, cooking / resting times and serving suggestions.

Aircards, the Web XR-only Agency, is one of the market-leading providers of Web-based Augmented Reality experiences and one of the few select 8th Wall Premier Partners. Their impressive work includes high-profile launches with Verizon, Kinder, Unilever, Dell Technologies, AB InBev and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

The experience was part of a larger consumer education campaign designed to give more information about animal welfare, provenance and cooking guidance. Activated via QR code on-pack, the experience featured a fully custom 3D animated scene, demonstrating how to cook the perfect Wagyu steak. 

Augmented Reality Cooking Demonstration

To activate the experience, the user scans the QR code on their Wagyu steak packaging. The realistic AR steak appears before the user on a wooden chopping board, accompanied by salt and pepper shakers. A small box appears next to the steak with ‘Step 1 - Season the steak’ written on it.  Step 1 instructs the user to:

• Let the steak reach room temperature
• Brush with oil
• Season with salt and pepper
• Set a pan on high heat
• Reduce to medium once pan is searing hot

One the animations for these steps are complete, the experience moves onto ‘Step 2- Cooking the steak’. A stovetop appears in front of the user and the steak is placed into the pan to cook. Steam rises from the pan as the steak sizzles, the user is able to see the cooking times to get that perfect rare, medium or well done steak. Once the steak has been flipped, cooked on both sides and seared along the sides, it is time for ‘Step 3’. 

Step 3 - Let the steak rest, the steak is moved from the pan and onto the chopping board, donned with vine ripened cherry tomatoes, sprigs of thyme, lettuce, salt and pepper shakers and a silver steak knife and fork. The step 3 box instructs the user to:

• Sear along sides
• Take steak off heat
• Let rest for a few minutes
• Enjoy!

Five interactive green boxes appear below the chopping board featuring call to action buttons taking users to pages with more information on:

1. Beef farming in the UK
2. Buy online
3. Steak recipes 
4. Steak sauce recipes 
5. About Wagyu
   

The augmented reality experience and interactive steps gives customers confidence in their cooking to make themselves the perfect Wagyu steak.

Learn more about Aircards recent projects.