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 every step unlocked new discoveries. The more festivalgoers explored the venue, the more they progressed through the experience.
As they moved around the festival, the map gradually revealed itself, uncovering hidden Kappa merch and rare keys before naturally leading players back to the Kappa Korner to claim their rewards.
Without ever imposing a predefined route, the experience encouraged curiosity, exploration and movement while staying true to Kappa’s sport and lifestyle DNA.
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.
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.
Festival
Campsite
Built at real scale
Behind the scenes
Player Geolocation
Players were positioned on the map using their phone’s GPS.
Because GPS signals become unreliable in crowded festival environments, we developed a custom smoothing system to create fluid, natural movement.
A compass combining the phone’s magnetometer and gyroscope 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 keep performance high, 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
Using real-time geolocation, festivalgoers explored the festival to gradually reveal the custom illustration on their phones while discovering Kappa merch and collecting Gold and Silver keys.
Each day introduced a new quest, inviting players to find 5 to 10 hidden items scattered across the festival, including Kappa merch and gift cards. Along the way, Silver keys rewarded players with goodies and one-hour access to the Chill Area, while the rarer Gold keys granted entry into a daily prize draw for exclusive VIP experiences, including VIP upgrades and backstage tours.
Once their quest was complete, players headed to the Kappa Korner to claim their rewards.
Impact
34,8 minutes
of gameplay per player
4 000+ qualified leads
Over the four days of the festival, The Quest by Kappa brought together more than 4,000 qualified unique players through marketing opt-ins and completed forms.
2 260+ km explored
While searching for Kappa merch and rare keys, players walked an average of 959 metres each.
Altogether, they covered more than 2,260 km across the festival and campsite in just four days.
1 in 2 players visited the Kappa Korner
More than one out of every two players who completed their quest visited the Kappa Korner to claim their reward.
Relive the experience 🔥
When play brings people together
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.
An enthusiasm shared by both the players and the teams on site.
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.