Challenge
Scion, a division of the Toyota Motor Corporation, wanted to create an interactive experience that would bring their brand to life. Working collaboratively, George P. Johnson and Mindflood came to Scion with the idea for “Mix It Up”. "Mix It Up" is a large-scale interactive installation that engages users with the Scion brand and immerses them in the process of customization which is central to the car’s identity.

Scion developed a brand that targets primarily Gen-Y consumers. The brand aims to be hip and edgy, but straightforward and expressive of individuality. A central aspect of the process of purchasing a Scion is a high level of customization. Unlike most vehicles, Scion accessories aren’t sold in packages but are available a la carte for clearly set prices. Consumers can customize the exact combination of features that suits their individual style.

The challenge for George P. Johnson and Mindflood was to further enhance the customization of the kiosk concept and promote a compelling and lasting interaction with the brand. From a design perspective, this involved combining compelling motion graphics with a usable interface so that users would be stimulated and engaged but not overwhelmed.

Solution
For Mix It Up, our two teams created an interactive experience using two 50” plasma screens – a touch screen below and a display screen above. Using the touch screen to make choices, the visitor creates a customized virtual Scion car on the display in real time – selecting model, color, wheels, body accessories, applied graphics, and even details about the environment the virtual car is in. Staying inline with Scion’s brand identity, the overall visual treatment is dynamic, active, with a hip hop feel, full of vibrant colors and extensive movement. The unique large-scale display system we developed truly immerses the user in the experience.

With each element chosen, the user is also laying down musical tracks – bass, drum, melody – to create a custom audio composition. By the end of the process, each user has created a unique seven-track song that plays through the integrated speakers.

We developed the Mix It Up Experience so that it could be set up to deliver the finished content to users in two different ways:

01. Customized T-Shirt
Once the user completes their customized car, the kiosk sends the information to a print server which in turn prints the car out on iron-on transfer paper. Those print outs are then fused onto a t-shirt using a hot press. Users walk away with their own custom scion t-shirt. This creates an ongoing interaction with the brand and turns each user into a walking billboard for Scion’s customizable and expressive identity.

02. Email
Once the user completes their customized car and enters their information, the kiosk emails them a screenshot of their creation that they can then use to decorate their desktop, cell phone or anything else with.

Mindflood built the user interface using Flash, Flash Video using After Effects, and AJAX. They used the ViewPoint 3D plug-in to animate the virtual car in the display screen, and to create the street environment. The back-end ran on ColdFusion.

Results
The Mix It Up Experience was first revealed at the 2006 Toyota National Dealer Convention in San Antonio, TX, to more than 5,000 visitors. The second week of January it made its auto show debut at the 2007 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. In San Antonio, Mix It Up was a great success. People lined up all night to use the kiosks and we simply could not keep up with the demand for t-shirts. At the Detroit Auto Show, Mix It Up was quite possibly the most integrated example of experience marketing on the show floor with over 100 customized scion vehicles being emailed each day.