Background

Mogao Cave, artistic treasure that originates from The Silk Road. There are more than 400 domes situated in the Mogao Caves with unreachable height to avoid sand erosion and man-made destruction. It hides on the dark dome. Tourists are not allowed to light or take pictures. Even if they look up, their necks will not last one minute. More than 400 cave domes, their beauty went unnoticed. How can we rediscover this unseen beauty? And experience it？The Mogao Caves reached out to Tencent, with the ultimate goal to find a digital solution that can overcome this challenge.

Describe the creative idea

When you step out of Mogao，you will receive the notification，a Mini Program on WeChat. This is an interactive experience of cave dome, you can use the dome elements to create a scarf，absolutely yours. Over 400 classical dome patterns, thousands of combinations. Using your fingers to design，click，purchase，Done！ Wait for two weeks and the only scarf delivered to you. Online to Offline，Dome to Home，You’ll never stop experiencing Mogao.

Describe the strategy

Souvenir is a critical component and often the last stage of the museum experience. But it often appears in form of notepad, erasers, mini-models…not favored by the visitors. We decided to experiment with the cave dome（which have low degree of experience）, and extend the online interaction into souvenir by creating a channel and bridges the gap between online and offline, transforming “they design, we purchase” into “we design, they produce”.

Describe the execution

1. The classic artistic elements of the cave dome are reassembled into more than 200 graphics. Through interactive application, users just need to work their fingers, choose the design components, size, position and color to design their own scarf. 2. After user clicks purchase, the image analysis runs in the background and resize the design into manufacturable image for production. 3. Users are also designer, photographer, and model themselves, attracting more individuals to participate.

List the results

1. There are more than 400 cave domes currently situated in the Mogao Caves. Within a month, the designs for Scarf of Dome has surpassed 250K, and more are being added to digital gallery as we speak. 2. The digital gallery has attracted 2 Million unique visitors equivalent to Mogao Caves annual visitor number in 2018 3. Through the Scarf of Dome, the public developed mass interest in Mogao Caves, leading to increase of visitor number by 23% for the 1st quarter. 4. Earned media involving more than 200 media outlets and KOL, drawing public attention to The Mogao Caves. 5. “Scarf for Business” was introduced later in form of coporate gift card 6. The service was also made available at The Mogao Caves Museum for visitors to experience and purchase