Feel the Sound: Digital Strategy for Barbican Immersive

The project began with a mini design sprint, a condensed workshop format I adapted to explore how a digital product and content strategy could be developed for the exhibition. Working in-person and remotely with the Barbican Immersive team, we worked through a structured process:

• Defining a long-term goal and sprint questions
• Mapping the end-to-end experience across discovery, always-on, during, and after-show touchpoints
• Reviewing existing audience insight and research
• Creating How Might We statements to frame opportunities
• Ideation and paper prototyping of potential approaches

The sprint surfaced a clear set of challenges: how to meet a real audience need (not just market at them), how to reach Gen Z audiences who weren't natural Barbican visitors, and how to create something that worked as both an acquisition channel and a retention driver.

From the workshop output, I developed four distinct strategic routes, each mapped to different audience drivers and brand archetypes. Working with content strategist Erica McKoy, we researched comparable digital strategies from organisations like Cercle, Define Everything Future, 180 Strand, and Sofar Sounds to inform each approach.

Each route was developed with a concept overview, content strategy, reference case studies, and UI prototypes to make the ideas tangible for stakeholders.

To validate the strategic routes, I designed research materials for qualitative testing with a Gen Z trendspotter panel, run in partnership with Sonia Joao at OXY Insight. Each concept was presented with visual stimulus, feature breakdowns, and user journey scenarios, designed to provoke honest responses about what would actually change behaviour.

The testing surfaced a clear winner. Digital Musical Being resonated as a novel experience that tapped into self-categorisation and personal discovery through sound. But the panel also delivered a critical insight: there was too much friction in asking users to visit a bespoke platform. The digital strategy needed to meet the audience where they already were — social platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

Some ideas from the other routes (AI creative tools, behind-the-scenes content) also resonated and were folded into the broader marketing strategy, but the core concept was clear: build a social-first version of Digital Musical Being.

With the strategy validated, I developed the concept into a production brief for an AR experience that would bring Digital Musical Being to life. The initial thinking centred on a TikTok filter, but a key insight from our research shifted the approach: visitors to immersive exhibitions want to put their phones away and be present. Rather than fighting that instinct, we needed to create a physical moment compelling enough that people would naturally want to take their phone out again — to capture and share the experience.

Consultation with TikTok's creative team reinforced this direction: a physical AR installation would be significantly more impactful than a digital-only filter. The brief evolved into a two-part approach — a physical AR Mirror as the centrepiece experience within the exhibition, accompanied by a companion TikTok filter for digital reach.

I sourced and recruited FFFACE.ME, an award-winning AR agency based in Barcelona with experience building installations for L'Oreal, Mugler, Meta, and Porsche. Their Loook.ai AR Mirror platform was the perfect fit: a physical installation that could deliver the "discover your frequency" concept in a way that felt like a natural extension of the exhibition.

This project was a good demonstration of the kind of work I enjoy most: taking a strategic brief from first principles through to a live, physical outcome. The arc from workshop post-its to a working installation in one of Europe's most prominent arts venues felt like a genuine proof point for the value of combining strategic thinking with hands-on design execution.