How Barilla leveraged taste, texture and tech in its premium “Red Experience” campaign

In a market dominated by speed and countless different options, how do you persuade the customer to pause, relish, and appreciate a product that’s meant to be experienced, not just consumed? What if your product is so flavorful that traditional marketing methods feel, well, a bit bland?

Enter the story of Barilla, presenting their gourmet bronze-drawn pasta.

A product like theirs cannot simply be seen. It has to be savored: a symphony of taste and texture that’s hard to capture in a conventional advertisement. And that poses a serious challenge: how do you effectively communicate a multi-sensory experience to a world largely dependent on sight and sound for digital interaction?

What will you learn from this customer story:

• Bronze-drawn and digitally rendered – the Barilla’s challenge
• Barilla’s need to set a new standard in high-end pasta’s marketing
• Aryel’s saucy solution: serving Barilla’s premium product with a side of AR
• Redefining FMCG marketing: a taste test from the future of advertising

Barilla was not looking to merely launch a new product; they created a gourmet bronze-drawn pasta and needed to communicate this high-level product in a pioneering language, using innovative technology.

Their goal was to craft an immersive experience that would communicate the unique appeal of their product, transcend the boundaries of taste, and deliver a vivid, virtual sensation of their product, both visually and acoustically.

Embracing the Aryel platform’s capabilities, Barilla realized a sensory-rich marketing campaign to showcase their premium pasta. Aptly named the “Barilla Red Experience,” this campaign presented users with two landing pages, each tailored for lovers of short or long pasta.

Upon scanning the brand new packaging, customers would be guided to choose between one of the two landing pages: here, they were just a click away from a multi-sensory immersive experience.

From there, the 3D video animation would begin, and the journey of the pasta, from package to boiling water, would come alive.

Venturing beyond the boundaries of the visual and auditory, Aryel employed Augmented Reality to offer customers the visual sensation of the pasta’s rough texture. The auditory dimension was not left out; as customers engaged with the experience, the familiar sound of raw pasta rustling emerged from the silence.

In this richly layered campaign, each sensory input coalesced to form a vivid impression of Barilla’s premium product. The narrative unfolded in a captivating 3D animation, tracing the pasta’s journey from packaging to bubbling pot.

This innovative campaign, which combined sight and hearing in a unified sensory experience, allowed Barilla to communicate the unique value of their premium pasta. It allowed Barilla to tell a compelling story that resonated with the audience and brought the product to life in a way that conventional marketing tactics simply could not, offering customers an indelible sensory imprint.

When it comes to communicating high-end products, it’s all about cooking up the right story. And with Aryel’s solution, we’re ready to serve up more success stories, one Augmented Reality at a time.

When it comes to the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry, the challenge of standing out in a sea of countless offerings can be a tough battle. Traditional marketing avenues, though tried-and-tested, are quickly becoming crowded and are struggling to capture the fleeting attention of consumers.

Augmented Reality technology is pushing the boundaries of customer engagement, allowing brands to extend their narrative beyond the confines of traditional marketing efforts, painting vivid, interactive pictures that engage customers.

One may wonder, how can this approach actually enhance a brand’s value proposition? By offering an exclusive, multi-sensory AR experience even before the purchase, Barilla differentiated itself from the competition in a bold and memorable way.
With AR, the simple act of pasta diving into water becomes a sensory spectacle, an emotional event. It’s not just about the pasta anymore – it’s about the story, the journey, the experience. It’s a creative leap from “selling products” to “telling tales”, from passive consumer engagement to active participation.

The implications for the FMCG industry are massive. With Augmented Reality, brands can redefine the concept of premium marketing, adding depth and dynamism to their customer engagement strategies. In a market defined by rapid consumer decision-making, an engaging AR-powered experience could make all the difference.

This disruptive technology broadens the sensory horizons of marketing campaigns, letting brands like Barilla engage customers in ways that reach far beyond the conventional confines of taste.

Want some fresh inspiration on how to combine tradition and technology in a meaningful way? Don’t miss our look at Mulino Bianco‘s use of AR to enhance their iconic toys. Find out how Augmented Reality allowed them to engage modern children while still evoking nostalgia that resonates with their parents.