AR FILTER · CREATIVE-TECH · SOCIAL
Happy Ads built an AR filter for 7UP Mint that wasn't just a look — it was a game. Play to unlock the refreshment moment. Pakistan's first hybrid AR-filter-plus-gameplay mechanic.
The Challenge
7UP Mint — PepsiCo's mint-flavoured refreshment drink — needed an AR campaign that could communicate the brand's refreshment proposition in a digital context. The challenge: 'refreshment' is a physical sensation. No visual ad format can make you feel cool and refreshed — it can only describe or illustrate it. The brand needed a format that created the feeling of achievement and relief the product promises.
Standard Snapchat filters for beverage brands typically add visual elements (product imagery, brand colours, text overlays) to the selfie frame. These execute brand awareness but don't differentiate: every beverage brand was running some version of the same selfie filter. 7UP Mint needed something that made users work for the refreshment — mirroring the product's proposition of earned coolness.
The format needed to be achievable within Snapchat's Lens Studio while delivering a genuinely game-like experience — a rare technical combination that required the Happy Ads team to push Lens Studio's capability beyond typical brand use cases.
The Solution
Happy Ads created a hybrid AR-filter-game for 7UP Mint on Snapchat — combining face-tracking visual effects with an embedded game mechanic. The filter presented users with a refreshment challenge: as the game progressed, 7UP Mint visual elements (ice, mint leaves, refreshing splash graphics) were layered onto the selfie in real time, intensifying as performance improved. Completing the game triggered the full 'refreshment moment' — a dramatic visual payoff in 7UP Mint's signature green and white palette.
The hybrid mechanic — AR filter that requires gameplay to unlock its full visual effect — created a new engagement model. Instead of putting the brand on the user's face immediately (a passive experience), the filter made the brand experience a reward for performance. This gamified delivery turned passive filter users into active participants.
The 'earn your refresh' creative arc — gamified challenge leading to brand payoff — directly expressed the 7UP Mint product proposition in the format itself. Distribution ran through paid Snapchat Lens placement in Pakistan, with organic sharing driven by the game-completion sharing prompt.
Key Results
Hybrid
AR Filter + Game Mechanic — First in Pakistan
Earned
Brand Moment — Play to Unlock
Snapchat
Lens Studio + Face Tracking
Refresh
Unlocked Through Performance
Key Insights
01
02
Standard AR selfie filters are shared as self-expression: 'I used this filter and looked cool.' AR game filters are shared as achievement: 'I completed this challenge and earned this.' Users who share a completed AR game are implicitly recommending the experience to their audience: 'this is worth playing.' The recommendation layer of game-completion sharing is more commercially valuable than the impression layer of passive filter sharing
03
Pakistan's beverage brands spend heavily on TV, programmatic video, and social media — formats that show the product being consumed. AR filters that simulate refreshment through game mechanics are rare across the entire Asia-Pacific beverage category. Happy Ads' work for 7UP Mint, Pepsi, and Sting represents the most advanced beverage AR creative portfolio in Pakistan and one of the most innovative in MENA + South Asi
