Facebook Portal
Don’t just read the story. Be the story.
Working closely with Facebook we helped bring families together through the power of storytelling, role-play, animation and AR.
We re-imagined the much loved Pete the Cat stories by James Dean and developed original stories inspired by the classic fairy tales Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks & the Three Bears to feature on the Story Time app, transforming them into interactive stories for families to share, without them needing to be in the same room.
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The Challenge
How do you create the bond of reading and enjoying a story together if you can’t be in the same room?
Video calls are a wonderful way for families who are separated by geography to stay connected and share special moments. ‘Story Time’, is a bespoke app built for Facebook’s video calling device ‘Portal’ which enhances storytelling using magical features to keep young children fully engaged during calls.
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Our Approach
We approached the task of enhancing these stories like writing a stage play, scripting the experiences so the readers really had license to ‘perform’.
We took a unique approach to creating our AR content, making fully immersive, animated hoods so the reader was embedded into the illustrated world.
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Impact
There is nothing kids get a kick out of more than seeing grownups transformed into funny characters in silly situations, like Goldilocks doing yoga. The stories were particularly popular amidst the Covid-19 global pandemic as staying connected became more important than ever.
The app has recently been used by celebrities Drew Barrymore and Mindy Kaling as part of the #SaveWithStories charity campaign on instagram.
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