The “Recycled Records” campaign marks Coca-Cola's switch from green to clear plastic bottles for Sprite, Fresca and Seagram as part of their overall sustainability strategy.
Various sounds recorded during the bottle recycling process are the starting point for an innovative musical experiment resulting in a digital beat machine to make your own records.
In just 5 weeks, we created "Recycled Records".
A beat sampler built purely on web technology that allowed users to create their own 16 bars beat with sounds from Sprite's recycle facility.
The beats were produced live, and could be exported into a video live on the platform.
This project was the first of its kind to see an on-device video generator created at Merlin.
The Case
“Recycled Records”, a user generated content campaign for Coca-Cola & Sprite
Key Objectives
Create a beautiful website
We created a Dynamic Templating system on top of DatoCMS with NextJS (React) and animated content with Framer MotionCreate a beat sampler
We used Tone.js to create a beat machine, this was new for us as nobody had audio-creation experience. We created a customizable 16 bar beat machine with many effects, BPM slider, presets and more within 4 weeks.Create an audio visualisation
As icing on the cake, we created a WebGL powered audio visualisation that animated based on values extracted from the sound. This gave a synchronous feeling to the experience and allowed us to export the video with a unique visual for every user.Create a video export tool
We developed a tool that enabled for on-device video generation and exports. This negates the need for a server and thus is more secure and does not yield any costs.Ensure WCAG Level 2 compliance
To ensure accessibility and to follow the US law, we tested and applied various accessibility measures
the sonic experience
A step-by-step tutorial takes you through all the features of the beat machine. Once you know the drill get mixing, chopping and looping with the samples available.
The plastic like particles give you a equalizer of feedback on the beat you are creating. All of this works as smooth on mobile too.
The plastic like particles give you a equalizer of feedback on the beat you are creating. All of this works as smooth on mobile too.
"This virtual beat machine made it possible for thousands of people to make a cool beat. The export functionality allowed for socials to take over and make the campaign a success"
Mees Rutten, Founder @ Merlin Studio
Results & Ongoing Partnership
The website got traction from news sites and saw a lot of activity.
After the campaign duration ended, the site was taken down.
We look back on an amazing project that kickstarted our ongoing collaboration for several years.
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