Coca-Cola x Star Wars
My Role: UX Lead
Time: 5 Months
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The goal is to create an immersive digital branded experience where users can send personalized messages, leveraging the cultural force of Star Wars to drive transactions, increase weekly engagement, and build a positive community and reputation among fans.
Get a Glimpse
HOLOCREATOR Sizzle ✨
Background
Coca‑Cola and Star Wars join forces to celebrate hope, resilience, and connection, values cherished by both brands.
Through immersive experiences, collectible packaging, and engaging content, the collaboration invites fans to connect in fresh, meaningful ways, inspiring joy and upliftment across generations.
Objective
The project aimed to create an immersive digital Star Wars experience for personalized messaging, driving transactions, engagement, and community building:
KPI's:
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Capture 1PD: Ensure strong value exchange for data.
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Shareability: Create an experience worth sharing.
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Collectability: Drive weekly transactions.
Problem
Despite global appeal, Coca-Cola and Star Wars need a fresh, interactive web-based AR experience to drive measurable engagement.
The challenge is inspiring sign-ups, regular returns, and sharing by combining gamification with both brands' uplifting values to foster repeat use, sharability, and deeper emotional connections.
Solution
Create a web-based AR experience combining Coca-Cola's spirit with Star Wars, where scanning products unlocks personalized AR, gamified challenges, and digital rewards.
This drives sign-ups, repeat visits, and sharing of uplifting AR messages, fostering emotional connection and brand affinity.
Impact
The project generated 100,000 unique hologram creations across North America, demonstrating strong engagement. A 20% completion conversion rate was observed for registered users and sharing, contributing to 1.9 million pageviews. North America showed consistent engagement relative to its population size.
The Process
Discovery and Definition
Leveraging design thinking, our team lead a cross-functional DRIP session to address the brief and formulate a solution. From this session I was able to better formulated user flows, providing the essential structural blueprint for the entire experience.
Design Thinking - Workshop
During our DRIP sessions, we balanced key KPI’s and the brief with expanding possibilities. This involved critical considerations:

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Brand Guidelines: Adhering to Star Wars real-world rules (e.g., no real-world character in Star Wars settings, or vice versa)
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Messaging & Characters: Exploring custom messaging, character logistics, and scalable translation for diverse messaging
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Technical Scope: Assessing animation possibilities and other technical constraints
![[INT] Project Solo - Brainstorming + Marvel Learnings - Frame 15.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/afe18c_1302e02a324d43929f66cebb40978860~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_474,h_318,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/%5BINT%5D%20Project%20Solo%20-%20Brainstorming%20%2B%20Marvel%20Learnings%20-%20Frame%2015.jpg)
Design Thinking - How Might We?
![[INT] Project Solo - Brainstorming + Marvel Learnings - Frame 14.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/afe18c_90b23d5a29594ab4827e3c3946c57b2f~mv2.jpg/v1/crop/x_191,y_341,w_11785,h_3327/fill/w_978,h_276,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/%5BINT%5D%20Project%20Solo%20-%20Brainstorming%20%2B%20Marvel%20Learnings%20-%20Frame%2014.jpg)
After defining feasibility, we formulated "how might we" statements to articulate challenges and opporutnites, leading to a data-driven plan and initial task flows.
User Flows
Sender User Flow:​
High Level Breakdown:
01
Entry
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Legal
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Entry
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Cookies & Legal
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Archetype Selection
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Camera and Motion Permissions
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Acknowledge moderation and biometric data
03
Sharing
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Registration
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Regisitration
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Native Sharing
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Download
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Copy URL Link
02
Record
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Moderation
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User aligns face
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Message recorded
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Moderation initiated
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Pass or Fail
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AR experience placement
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Playback
04
Dashboard
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Collection
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Record and share new message
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Scan and collect digital art
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View and redeem rewards
Lo-Fidelity Wires and User Testing
Design Iteration and Early User Validation
Key Screens
Archetype Selection​
Legal
Record Message
AR Experience and Registration
Dashboard and Collection
Scan and Unlock Artwork
Lo-Fi User Testing
Over three weeks, we conducted moderated sessions and surveys with 60 participants (ages 18-60) to gain key insights into:
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Engagement & Interaction: Overall user engagement.
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Clarity & Effectiveness: Key touchpoints (QR code, CTA).
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Usability Challenges: Navigation, permissions, and moderation issues.
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User Preferences: Personalization, rewards, and gamification.
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Motivation Drivers: Factors for participation and sharing.
Key Findings and Iterations
Moderation Guidelines and Clarity
90% of users expressed navigation to be straightforward but wanted more understanding around moderation
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Moderation Clarity: Users requested understanding of moderation before recording
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A mandatory modal was added for review and consent to guidelines.
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Original
Reccomendation
Original
Reccomendation
Moderation Timing
80% of users mentioned they would like more visibility on moderation length timing
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Progress Clarity: Users indicated a likelihood to drop off with long loading times
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Solution: The loader was changed to a progress bar to better inform users of the status
User Sentiment
With 75% enthusiastic feedback, we recognized the potential for a cool and user-friendly experience. This positive reception drove us to further tweak our designs to perfectly meet user needs.
"This is exciting and it's something I think as a Star Wars fan I would definitely look forward to. It's definitely nostalgic too"
-Dee
"The navigation was very easy! It was intuitive like every step I kind of knew what to expect. To me it was very simple and easy."
-Mynor
"I think if I were recording a message of uplift, I would try to be positive. I would like to hint at the character and make a pun or something on theme"
-C.S
Hi-Fidelity Wires and User Testing Round 2
Refinement and User Optimization
Key Screens
Archetype Selection​
Legal
Record Message
AR Experience and Registration
Dashboard and Collection
Scan and Unlock Artwork
Hi-Fi User Testing
Over two weeks, 8 paricipants (ages 25-60) engaged in moderated and A/B testing on high-fidelity prototypes to understand user prefernce in key ares:
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Flow & Intuitiveness: Assessed navigation ease, task completion, and confusion points.
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Reward Mechanics: Explored motivation systems and perceived reward value.
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Iconography: Evaluated icon understanding, placement, and feature identification speed.
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Artwork Unlocking: Compared QR code vs. label alignment for task completion and satisfaction
Key Findings and Iterations
User feedback highlighted a need for clearer guidance and reward information:
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63% of users sought additional guidance and reward details, showing confusion about the experience
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Loading and moderation screens offer a prime opportunity to inform users about rewards and expectations
Original
Reccomendation
Original
Reccomendation
The Sharing page presented a significant usability challenge:
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100% of users were confused by the Death Star icon, failing to recognize it as the dashboard link
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Adding 'Home' copy under the icon was identified as a necessary clarifcation
Final Product
Full Experience Walkthrough
This video highlights how the experience was designed to meet key KPIs:
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Capture 1PD: Created a clear value exchange where users shared data for a chance to win prizes.
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Shareability: Integrated easy sharing moments to encourage users to spread the experience.
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Collectability: Introduced collectible features and weekly challenges to drive repeat engagement and transactions.
All that focus on creating a user-first experience paid off — watching it come to life was pure magic
Next Steps
We worked hand-in-hand with UI and design teams to build scalable systems, and now HOLOCREATOR has launched worldwide — from Japan to Europe to LATAM. Data is still rolling in, but what’s clear is the value of pushing for the user and testing relentlessly.
This project embodies our drive to be subversive, stand out, and create immersive work we’re truly proud of.
Next Steps
1. This activation is currently live in North American Operating Units but is set to go global by the EOY
2. Coca- Cola is currently pitching this concept to other FSA's ( Food Service Applications) for global partnerships
3. I will take my learnings from this charter to apply to other activation and AR fitlers in the future
4. I developed a global toolkit based on this activation, which my company can use for future worldwide initiatives. This toolkit includes detailed strategies, best practices, and resources to ensure successful implementation and scalability across different markets.
For any inquiries about this case study or to learn how I created a global toolkit from this activation email me at Chelseacatcraft@gmail.com
Coca - Cola
"Congratulation on getting HOLOCREATOR live. You did a masterful job and should all be proud"
-Phil L.
Disney
"This is awesome. Crisp. Clear. Clean. Sophisticaed. Very Star Wars. Very Coca-Cola"
- Chris L.
Lucas Film
"Fantastic! It screams our hologram from our galaxy far far away."
-Erin
Ogilvy
"Everyone is happy. I haven't seen clients as happy at an event ina long time, if ever. The app worked flawlessly." (On release event)
-Kaare Wesnaes