Key Takeaways:
- Visit Tri-Valley’s AR activation brought iconic regional landmarks to life in a high-traffic San Jose retail space, offering an immersive and engaging experience.
- The campaign combined innovative AR technology with creative storytelling to spark digital engagement and showcase the destination’s unique appeal.
- Experiential marketing using AR helps tourism brands build emotional connections and convert curiosity into real interest.
What if you could walk through a door and instantly find yourself surrounded by California wine country, rolling hills, and historic downtowns?
A new AR activation from Visit Tri-Valley made this possible, no road trip required.
On May 9 to 10, the destination marketing organization partnered with experiential agency GDX Studios to bring a one-of-a-kind AR experience to Santana Row in San Jose.
The two-day pop-up featured vibrant door frames and a scannable QR code that transported visitors into a 180-degree virtual portal showcasing Tri-Valley’s most iconic landmarks.
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The collaboration combined creative brand storytelling with cutting-edge technology to spark interest in the Tri-Valley area.
Heather Hudson, director of production at GDX Studios, shared with DesignRush how the experience was designed to both engage and inspire.
“With a focus on driving digital engagement, GDX Studios leveraged Augmented Reality (AR) to offer guests a unique experience that captured the essence of the region, and positioned Tri-Valley as a must-visit destination!”
Unlike static billboards or traditional travel ads, the activation used experiential marketing to let people feel the destination before ever setting foot there.
It turned a busy retail space into a gateway to California’s wine country, parks, and downtowns.
It also showed how travel campaigns can thrive outside typical tourism channels, reaching people in spaces where their interest is sparked more organically.
Turning Curiosity into Real Connection
For tourism boards and regional brands, this activation shows how AR companies are helping shorten the gap between awareness and real interest.
These immersive experiences connect with people where they already spend their time, creating genuine excitement and giving potential visitors a vivid feel for what the destination offers.
Transforming everyday spaces into interactive previews lets regions build more meaningful emotional connections — something traditional ads often miss.
Brand activations like these are becoming essential tools across industries, helping companies create memorable, hands-on experiences that drive consumer engagement.
More brands are realizing that in-person moments can spark the kind of attention and action that digital campaigns often struggle to deliver.
Pepsi demonstrated this by reigniting its 50-year-old rivalry with Coke through live taste tests in Atlanta, boosting Pepsi Zero Sugar sales by 25%.
