Aces For Oceans
- Brand
- Kia
- Year
- 2022
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Automotive
- Mechanic
- Racing & Sports
- Platform
- AR & VR
- Agency
- UNIT9
Objective
Kia used its 21st year as Australian Open sponsor to put real weight behind its new "Movement that Inspires" brand promise. Research into Kia's early-adopter audience showed sustainability alone was table stakes — they wanted something playable and tech-forward, so the brand built a game that converted fan participation directly into a stated goal of 20,000 aces, each one funding the recycling of ocean plastic into tennis equipment for the Rafa Nadal Foundation and The Australian Tennis Foundation.
Solution
A fan opens acesforoceans.com on their phone — no app to install — and first watches a short film with Rafael Nadal on the ocean plastic problem. From there, the camera opens onto an augmented-reality tennis court littered with plastic waste, overlaid on whatever room or street the player is standing in. The player serves aces against the clock: each ball they land clears a patch of debris from the court and adds one ace to a running global tally shared by everyone playing. A session ends when the timer runs out, with the player's aces folded into that live campaign count.
- 1
A short film about ocean plastic pollution featuring Rafael Nadal serves as the entry point, inviting the viewer to join the campaign through a link into the game.
- 2
The player opens the mobile-only site on a phone; no app download is required, and it runs in-browser on both iOS and Android, with the interface language set automatically by geo-IP (English, French, or Korean across nine markets).
- 3
A WebAR view launches, turning the camera's view of the player's surroundings into a tennis court littered with ocean plastic debris.
- 4
In the core loop, the player serves aces against a countdown timer, aiming the ball's swing, speed, and trajectory at a target on the court.
- 5
Each successful ace clears debris from the AR court, visibly cleaning it up as the session progresses.
- 6
Aces scored add to a running campaign total toward a goal of 20,000, combining the player's virtual aces with real aces served by professionals at the Australian Open; reaching the goal triggers Kia's production of recycled gear.
- 7
The payoff plays out beyond the game: the collected ocean plastic is recycled into tennis equipment donated to the Rafa Nadal Foundation and The Australian Tennis Foundation for youth tennis programs.
