M&S: Emily Button

Emily and friends come to life

The Challenge

M&S (Marks & Spencer) is a UK premium high street retailer, focused on own label food, clothing and home, both in the UK and internationally.

M&S wanted to launch its new children's character, Emily Button, using a website and interactive activities that would allow Emily to come to life.

The Solution

The desire was to create a series of educational games and experiences for young children where they could read a story and make some choices along the way to influence the route it took. They would also get the chance to participate by taking photos within parts of the experience and 'dress up' using items worn by the characters.

We worked closely with the client's CGI agency to create Emily and incorporate the character into multiple interactive environments.

The Outcome

We created various applications including an AR 'dress up' game and an interactive storybook that would lift Emily from the page. The application was a huge success and Emily became a popular rag doll soft toy and featured sticker book character across 1,000+ M&S stores.

Fun Fact

The launch of Emily Button led to other AR projects using greetings cards for M&S.