THE QUEST
BY KAPPA
From July 2 to 5, 2026, as part of its partnership with Les Ardentes Festival (Liège, Belgium), Kappa wanted to extend its brand universe far beyond its booth.
The answer: a phygital experience that turned festivalgoers into active participants in their own journey across the festival.
WHERE THE IDEA BEGAN
How could Kappa encourage festivalgoers to explore the entire festival instead of simply stopping by its booth?
The answer was a location-based game where exploration became the experience. As players moved across the venue, the map gradually revealed hidden Kappa merch and rare keys, naturally guiding them back to the Kappa Korner to claim their rewards.
Without imposing a predefined route, the game encouraged curiosity, exploration, and movement while staying true to Kappa's sport and lifestyle DNA.
BARTLE TAXONOMY OF PLAYER TYPES
CRAFTING KAPPA'S WORLD
Every element of the Kappa × Les Ardentes collaboration became part of the experience.
Collections, merchandise, goodies, artists, stages and stands were all illustrated and integrated into the game to create a world that felt unmistakably Kappa from beginning to end.
MIKI
AYA NAKAMURA
HOLY PRIEST
PLAYBOI CARTI
THE PLAYGROUND
CASA BACARDI
RECREATING LES ARDENTES
The goal wasn't simply to recreate the festival, but to transform it into a playground that felt unmistakably Kappa.
Every stage, food stand, sponsor booth, camping area and landmark was carefully illustrated by hand before being vectorized and integrated into the game.
The result was a faithful yet stylised interpretation of Les Ardentes, designed to reward curiosity and encourage exploration.
BUILT AT REAL SCALE
BEHIND THE SCENES
PLAYER GEOLOCATION
Players were positioned on the map using their phone's GPS.
In crowded festival environments, GPS signals can become unreliable. We developed a custom smoothing system to ensure fluid, natural movement.
A compass combining the phone's sensors continuously displayed the player's orientation.
SMART BOUNDARIES
The festival and campsite were treated as two distinct play areas.
Whenever players left either zone, the game instantly detected it and displayed an "Out of Bounds" message.
SMART MAP LOADING
The map itself was enormous.
To maintain high performance, it was divided into hundreds of small tiles. Only nearby sections were loaded first, while the rest streamed progressively as players moved.
Assets were cached locally to ensure smooth gameplay even under heavy network congestion.
EXPLORATION FOG
Players began with a completely hidden map.
Every real-world movement gradually revealed new territory, turning exploration itself into a rewarding mechanic.
OBJECT PLACEMENT
Every collectible was placed at precise GPS coordinates and could only be claimed by physically reaching its location.
Gold and Silver keys followed a rarity system, with only a handful available each day.
REWARD MANAGEMENT
Each reward was tied to a unique, automatically generated code.
A dedicated back office enabled Kappa's team to validate every redemption in real time before distributing rewards, ensuring a seamless experience while preventing fraud and duplicate claims.
📢 THE QUEST
IMPACT
PLAYTIME / 34.8 MIN AVG.
QUALIFIED LEADS / 4,000+
EXPLORATION / 2,260+ KM [959 M AVG. PER PLAYER]
1 in 2 players visited the Kappa Korner
BOOK A CALL
RELIVE THE EXPERIENCE
Beyond the numbers, the experience created genuine human interactions: festivalgoers helping each other, groups exploring together, spontaneous conversations at the Kappa Korner, and a natural discovery of Kappa's collections.
THE EXPERIENCE CONTINUES
The Quest by Kappa didn't end when the rewards were claimed. Every participant received a 20% discount code to use on kappa.fr.
A simple way to extend the experience beyond the festival, encourage players to discover Kappa's collections, and measure the activation's impact on online sales over the 30 days following the event.
LET'S CREATE YOURS.
Every great experience starts with a conversation.