HBO Max is set to launch its interactive digital experience called HBO Max Orbit at SXSW Online. The streamer’s newest immersive venture will allow audiences to experience its content like they never had before. SXSW Online will take place March 16-20.
The HBO Max Orbit experience at SXSW Online will respond to facial movements and voice prompts to allow audiences to explore and interact with thousands of iconic moments, characters and stories from its vast library in a personalized, intuitive way. In the experience, users will be able to explore over 150,000 scenes from titles like Game of Thrones, Lovecraft Country, Justice League, Big Bang Theory, among others. All of them will be integrated into the online experience and accessible with a nod of the head or a few spoken words.
For SXSW Online, HBO Max Orbit will feature interactive design elements for the forthcoming Godzilla vs. Kong which debuts March 31 in theaters and on HBO Max. Festival attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a “flock to unlock” challenge starting at 12pm ET on March 19 to unlock an exclusive clip with never-before-seen scenes from the film.
The HBO Max Orbit technology will respond to how a user is moving their face and will surface clips of HBO Max characters matching their movements in real time. Specific clips in the SXSW Online experience will trigger “challenge mode,” which prompts users to move their face to find clips that match a certain title on screen or use their voice to speak a phrase from a specific show within a timed window. Successful completion of these challenges unlocks frames from the exclusive clip.
“The pandemic has forced brands from all sectors to reimagine experiential marketing and devise new ways to engage and delight users with content,” said Jason Mulderig, SVP Brand Marketing, HBO Max. “HBO Max Orbit is an impressive technical feat, and we’re so pleased to use this technology to create fun, meaningful connections with people from the comfort of their homes. Given our history of partnership with SXSW and its impact amongst audiences at the intersection of entertainment and technology, we can’t wait to bring this compelling experience to the festival and to share all that HBO Max has to offer.”
Experience design firm HUSH developed the digital/physical experience and the HBO Max Orbit technology for both the web and retail flagships.
“This was an incredible creative and technical opportunity for our firm and one that was supported with energy and enthusiasm by the HBO Max team,” said David Schwarz, HUSH Partner. “Strategically, we were able to lean into the fact that HBO Max’s library is unparalleled in quality and scale. We latched onto an intriguing but simple question: how can we leverage design and creative technology to give audiences a magical experience of navigating the seemingly infinite world of HBO Max? It needed to be functionally intuitive and fast, but also dreamlike, extemporaneous and unexpected. The best explorers in history didn’t change their world, they just found beautiful ways through it.”
After SXSW, an in-person version of HBO Max Orbit will open in select AT&T flagship stores starting in April. The immersive location-based experience will bring HBO Max Orbit to life. The experience will exist within a 360-degree chamber, integrated into the existing layout of the store, and designed to optimize the feeling of a vast audio-visual space; providing a truly immersive experience.