Bringing Brand Characters to Life in AR
Sousa x EVERYTHING Studios. A single 2D illustration transformed into a city-wide AR content campaign and in-store retail activation in under five minutes.
Sousa, a newly launched protein and electrolyte CPG brand, partnered with EVERYTHING Studios to create a web-based AR activation for their retail debut at Pop Up Grocer in New York City.
In under five minutes, EVERYTHING Studios transformed a single 2D character illustration into a fully deployable, web-native AR experience — no app download, no 3D artist, no agency required.
The AR asset served double duty: first as a pre-launch content marketing tool deployed across New York City to Idris's 643K social media followers, then as a live in-store activation at Pop Up Grocer where shoppers interacted with the character in the physical retail environment using only their smartphones.
The result was a full-lifecycle campaign — pre-launch content, day-of activation, post-event marketing — all powered by a single sub-5-minute generation.
A single 2D character illustration was transformed into a fully spatial, deployable AR asset through the EVERYTHING Studios creation-to-deployment protocol. The character maintained high visual fidelity to the original artwork while gaining full 3D depth and real-world spatial anchoring.
Original 2D Illustration
Deployed AR AssetSousa
Sousa is a protein and electrolyte supplement brand built around a character-driven identity. Each flavor in the product line is associated with a distinct illustrated mascot — bold, colorful characters designed to stand out on shelves and resonate with a young, health-conscious audience.
Co-founded by Idris (@doosifit), a popular social media influencer with 643K followers, Sousa launched with a strong built-in audience and a visual brand language purpose-built for social content.
Their April 2025 debut at Pop Up Grocer — a celebrated pop-culture-oriented grocery concept in NYC — represented a pivotal retail milestone.
Sousa needed to make their Pop Up Grocer launch memorable and shareable. As a newly launched CPG brand entering a curated retail environment alongside established names, they faced a core question: how do you create a differentiated in-store experience that generates social content, drives foot traffic engagement, and reinforces brand identity — without the budget or timeline for a traditional experiential agency?
Traditional approaches would have required commissioning a 3D artist, waiting weeks for delivery, and coordinating a custom deployment workflow. For a brand at launch stage, this was neither practically nor operationally viable.
From 2D Illustration to Deployed AR in Under 5 Minutes
EVERYTHING Studios generated a production-ready, web-native AR asset from a single 2D character illustration. The entire pipeline — from image input to deployed AR experience — ran in under five minutes.
Turning a Single AR Asset into a City-Wide Content Campaign
Before Pop Up Grocer's doors opened, the Sousa AR character was already working. In the days leading up to the activation, Idris used the AR asset as a mobile content creation tool — placing the character at recognizable locations throughout New York City and sharing the content across his social media channels to his audience of 643,000 followers.
The character appeared across the city's most recognizable settings: riding the F train, waiting on subway platforms at Utica Avenue and 34th Street, sitting in subway car doorways, lounging in parks, and posted up on Brooklyn brownstone stoops. The built-in camera functionality within the web-based AR experience made content creation frictionless — Idris captured photos and videos directly within the AR viewer, saving them straight to his camera roll for immediate posting.
Why This Matters
The same AR asset generated in under five minutes for the in-store activation doubled as a content marketing tool with zero additional production. No separate creative brief, no additional assets, no extra cost. One generation, multiple use cases across the entire campaign lifecycle.
Pop Up Grocer — New York City
On launch day, the same AR character that had been building anticipation across Idris's social channels was deployed live at Pop Up Grocer's NYC location. Shoppers and attendees could instantly launch the AR character in their environment — no app install, no friction.
What We Observed
- —5–6 in-store attendees actively engaged with the AR experience on their personal devices, unprompted after initial demonstration
- —Attendees photographed and filmed the AR character placed alongside physical Sousa products on shelves
- —The character was placed in multiple environments: in-store shelves, sidewalk outside the venue, and street-level settings
- —Visual content captured during the activation is being used for Sousa's ongoing social media and marketing
- —Built-in camera functionality enabled attendees to capture photos and videos of the AR character directly within the experience, saving to their camera roll for immediate social sharing
- —Zero technical issues reported across iOS and Android devices
"We were a brand new CPG brand walking into Pop Up Grocer competing against more established names. We knew we didn't want to show up the same way everyone else does with another product on a shelf with a QR code. EVERYTHING Studios gave us something none of them had. We turned one illustration into an AR character, took it around NYC for days before the launch, and drove over 100K views in under a week as a brand that had just launched. The same asset that built our pre-launch hype was live in the store on day one. Zero learning curve and under five minutes of production. For a launch-stage brand trying to stand out, that's the kind of leverage that actually moves the needle. We're so happy we worked with EVERYTHING Studios on this activation."
CPG Brands Invest in Visual Identity. Now They Can Make It Spatial.
CPG brands invest heavily in packaging design, brand characters, and visual identity — yet these assets remain flat and static across every touchpoint. EVERYTHING Studios unlocks the ability to bring any visual brand asset into spatial commerce without the traditional barriers.
| Traditional Agency | EVERYTHING Studios | |
|---|---|---|
| Production Time | 2–4 weeks | < 5 minutes |
| 3D Artist Required | Yes | No |
| App Download | Often | Never (web-native) |
| Deployment | Custom integration | One-click embed |
Repeatable Use Cases Across Categories
Ready to Bring Your Brand to Life in AR?
EVERYTHING Studios is the protocol layer for web-based spatial commerce and experiences — the full creation-to-deployment pipeline that transforms any product or visual asset into a deployable AR experience in minutes.