AR filter ideas
for brand campaigns

In short: a good AR idea is a mechanic that says the brand's point without a caption. Pick the story first, then the mechanic, then the platform.

Start with what the mechanic should say

A filter idea that begins with "what is trending" ends up looking like everyone else's. A better start is one sentence: what should a person understand or feel after ten seconds? The mechanic is how they get there. Our work shows the pattern. For Little Mix's Confetti album, an empty heart floats in frame and confetti falls around you, and catching the pieces fills the heart. The game mechanic is the song's theme, so there is nothing to explain.

Many of these builds were made for Instagram, which cannot publish third-party effects now. The mechanics carry to Snapchat, TikTok and WebAR, as we explain in Instagram AR filters for brands.

The eight mechanics

1. Try-on

The person sees the product or uniform on themselves. Our easyJet cabin crew uniform try-on used Instagram neck tracking and Snapchat body tracking, and reached 400K+ impressions and 50K+ shares. Use it when seeing it on you is the point.

2. Transformation

The person becomes something. In the Bake Off Dessert Randomiser, a wheel lands on a dessert category and the user's face morphs into that dessert, which makes the result personal and shareable. Use it when the goal is shares.

3. Game

A short play loop with a reason to finish. The Benefit Brow Game uses blinks to steer a floating magnet to unlock a prize, the Old Spice Nose Game has you hit falling objects away with your nose, and in the M&S Fairy Game your score decides the coupon you unlock. See AR filter games for brands.

4. Randomiser or quiz

A spin, a draw or a question that gives each person a different result. It works because everyone gets something to compare. The Bake Off wheel is the example above. Use it when conversation matters more than depth.

5. Landmark or world lens

Content anchored to a real place. Our House of the Dragon lens was anchored at Sankagiri Hill Fort, a story world placed on a real location, covered in HBO Snap Map AR: behind the build. See also location-based AR for brands.

6. Music lens

An artist or release turned into something you play with. The Little Mix example opens this piece, and AR for music releases and album launches covers the format.

7. Story world

A character or a place you step into. Luna's Lost Spell, made for Chester Zoo, is a character-led piece, and our WebAR examples show how browser AR can carry a narrative with no app.

8. Shared play

More than one person in the same experience. Ellen's Heads Up on Messenger put a category card above one player's head, visible only to the others through AR. That product is now gone, but the idea of shared AR is covered in multiplayer and shared AR for brands.

Which mechanic fits which goal

Budget scales with how much the mechanic needs: a custom Snapchat Lens typically starts from $5k, and a WebAR experience from $8k, as set out in how much an AR filter costs. If your idea has a goal and no mechanic yet, that is the right place to start a brief, and how to brief an immersive experience shows how.

Frequently asked questions