Custom booth and gamification for the Ricola store opening
Ricola wanted to accompany the opening of its new store in Switzerland with an activation concept that connects digital interaction and physical store presence. UpReach developed a bespoke photo booth with AI-driven integration into Ricola brand worlds and added a digital gamification platform with a live leaderboard. Visitors could generate brand photos, take part in prize draws and buy photo outputs as monetisable keepsakes.
More than 200 B2B brands from across Europe trust UpReach — from agencies to enterprise corporations.
The initial situation
A store opening is a one-off brand occasion that has to create lasting value beyond the day. Standard opening stagings — a ribbon cut, promoters with goodies, free product samples — are interchangeable and leave little digital trace. Ricola wanted an activation that both holds footfall in the store and generates organic reach across social media.
There was also a commercial requirement: the activation should not just be a cost item, but have a monetisable component — visitors should be able to buy high-quality photo keepsakes as a physical output. Standard photo booths with a free print output do not deliver that.
The third requirement was the gamification component: a mechanic that motivates visitors to dwell in the store and compete with one another — a live leaderboard that makes achievements visible and rewards repeat visits over the opening weekend.
The UpReach solution
UpReach developed a bespoke photo booth specifically for the Ricola store opening. The AI engine integrated visitors into various Ricola brand worlds in real time — alpine landscapes, herb universes, classic brand-heritage scenes — via real-time AI background removal, GDPR-compliant with consent at the terminal.
The software UI ran entirely in Ricola's corporate design: standby screen, guidance, brand-world selection and preview surface in the brand look. Visitors could choose between several brand worlds and have their photo output in different styles.
Alongside the photo activation ran a digital gamification platform that UpReach programmed for the opening. Visitors could complete mini-challenges live in the store and win prizes. A live leaderboard made the top performers visible and created the competitive incentive for repeat visits over the opening weekend.
The monetisation component was built into the photo flow: visitors could share their AI brand photo digitally or buy it as a high-quality print output. The system coupled photo creation, payment flow and print pipeline in one end-to-end process. More on the custom platform: /software.
Setup & Logistics
Lead time 8 weeks: 3 weeks for the bespoke photo-booth construction (CAD design, manufacture to specification, final surface finish in the Ricola CI), 3 weeks for software development (curating the AI brand worlds, UI in the Ricola CI, the gamification platform with live leaderboard, the payment-flow and print pipeline for photo monetisation), 2 weeks for compliance review, payment-system integration and final end-to-end testing.
Delivery and build at the new store by UpReach technicians the day before the opening. Camera calibration to the lighting inside the store, and a briefing for store staff on cloud CMS operation and the gamification mechanic.
Over the opening weekend, the cloud dashboard delivered real-time transparency on the session trend, the photo-monetisation rate and the gamification flow. The live leaderboard was shown on store displays — the competitive effect was directly tangible for visitors.
Results by the numbers
bespoke photo-booth construction
live leaderboard with mini-challenges
high-quality print outputs as purchasable keepsakes
The combination of bespoke hardware, AI brand worlds and a gamification platform created an activation concept that works in the premium store-opening context: the photo experience builds brand affinity and shareable content, the live leaderboard holds footfall and dwell time in the store, and the monetised print output delivers physical keepsakes that visitors carry home voluntarily.
The bespoke photo-booth construction was strategically valuable: a standard booth from the rental catalogue would not have matched the premium standard of the store opening. The custom build made the activation station a visual part of the store design, rather than an obviously bought-in foreign object.
Photo monetisation with an integrated payment flow shifted the economics of the activation: instead of a pure cost item, a mechanic with a revenue component emerged — the activation investment partly refinances itself through the print revenue during the opening days.
Key takeaways from this setup
Store openings can carry more ambitious activation concepts than pop-up events: the one-off nature of an opening justifies higher investment in custom hardware, bespoke AI brand worlds and multi-modal mechanics — the opening impact has a long-term effect on how the store is perceived.
Gamification with a live leaderboard holds footfall better than static activations: a photo experience is over in 60 seconds. A gamification platform with visible rankings creates repeat visits and significantly extends average dwell time in the store.
Monetisation turns activation costs into activation revenue: high-quality print outputs as purchasable keepsakes have market value on a premium store-opening day. The integrated payment flow in the photo setup is the technical prerequisite for this mechanic to work without a separate point-of-sale system.
AI brand worlds as an opening element build a story extension: anyone who takes home a photo set in a curated Ricola brand world carries the opening mood into their own everyday life — a different quality from a generic selfie in front of a brand logo.
UpReach Components Used
Hardware
Bespoke photo-booth construction (custom build in the Ricola CI)
Software 01
AI background removal (GDPR-compliant, consent at the terminal), curated Ricola brand worlds
Software 02
White-label UI in the Ricola CI, gamification platform with live leaderboard, payment flow for photo monetisation, print-pipeline integration, cloud CMS
A custom activation for your store opening
UpReach develops bespoke activation concepts for store openings, premium launches and brand-flagship occasions — from the hardware to the gamification platform.
