News: Snapchat Gives John Wick Fans the Tools to Build Their Own AR Effects via Lens Studio

For the release of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, Snapchat and Lionsgate aren't just creating AR experiences to promote the movie, they are giving fans the opportunity to create and share their own AR experiences.

On Friday, the promotional partners launched the "Art of Wick AR" contest that challenges fans to build and share their own AR Lenses with Lens Studio.

To get started, participants just need to install Lens Studio on their PC or Mac and download content from the John Wick website. Upon completion, Lens Studio will supply a Snapcode to unlock their creations and share with others.

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And the top AR creators won't necessarily be working for free. Participants who share content created with their Lenses to Lionsgate Movies (which means adding the brand as a friend on Snapchat) will be eligible to win a grand prize of one gold Continental Coin, worth about $1,500. Twenty-five second-place entrants will receive a John Wick prize pack.

In order to provide inspiration to movie fans looking to participate in the AR creation event, Snapchat recruited four of its Official Lens Creators: Allie Jackson, SVRF, Egyda_DigitalThing, and Phil Walton.

Snap's app fits this movie promotion particularly well, since the film franchise was born on the premise of a man avenging his murdered canine friend and Snapchat recently added dog (and cat) recognition to its Lens capabilities.

The promotion is similar to the Lens Studio activation during this year's NBA All-Star Weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina for the Jordan brand. (In fact, Jackson created a sample Lens for both promotions.) However, with the John Wick version, all fans can participate from anywhere, and there are prizes at stake.

Snapchat has become a staple for movie marketing ever since it began offering its Lenses as brand vehicles. This time around, though, not only does Snapchat provide a promotional lift to its advertising client, it also gets to expose potential creators to its AR development tool.

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