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Founded in March 2021, the intelligent electric vehicle (EV) brand JIDU launched its Robocar in the most competitive EV market in the world, China. With over 150 EV brands active in the country, the brand recognises the need to stand out and outsmart its competitors in every possible way, like designing an experience centre to deliver an unparalleled and immersive user experience.

Photo credit: Charlie Xia

JIDU relies on access to significant insights into the needs of its discerning, tech-savvy customers. With plans to open more new stores in China this year, this data becomes even more crucial to expand at speed and scale. Yet through traditional retail, sales representatives often have little information about store visitors as they walk in, and consumer insights do not flow back to the brand's headquarters.

To address this challenge, JIDU partnered with Media.Monks China to build the smartest retail showroom at Beijing Sanlitun: the 'Roboverse' at JIDU Experience Centre.

Photo credit: Charlie Xia

“In JIDU experience centre, everything represents JIDU’s idea of ‘digital experience’ and the pursuit of it, from human-robot interaction to art designs and peripherals. Technology and innovation of experience is the core of JIDU, and we will continue to bring futuristic and tech-savvy digital experiences to our users, " says Yiping Xia, CEO of JIDU .

"Our goal was to create an engaging online-to-offline experience where store visitors could meet their personalized 'ROBO AVATAR', which guides them through the space based on their interests and behaviour. By blurring the lines between reality and the digital world, visitors are part of the experience providing valuable data to JIDU and making themselves feel more connected with the brand's story,” says Marula Vaz, experiential creative director at Media.Monks.

Upon entering, store visitors match themselves with a life-sized, 3D animated ROBO AVATAR designed in collaboration with Chinese artist UV Zhu. As they begin the journey, they can customise their own avatar by answering a set of interactive questions that  provide insights into their interests. The visitor’s profile and preferences are then used to tailor the rest of the experience, with the avatar guiding them through a WeChat mini-program as they discover the JIDU Experience Centre in real life.

“We took a user-centric approach to ensure a seamless online and offline journey for consumers with a careful consideration of human ergonomics with the JIDU team. To address this, we have designed a smooth user flow that accommodates all visitor types. Our team has also taken into account ‘edge cases’ to ensure that every visitor enjoys a great brand experience.” says Mei Mei, UX/UI lead at Media.Monks China.

“Working together with our teams in Netherlands, India, Singapore and Japan offices while coping with time differences, we utilized our global tech and production capability to bring the project to life from ideation, design, animation concept, coding and all the way to production. We are proud of what we delivered! ” says Tammy Zhang, experiential producer of Media.Monks China.

The JIDU experience centre is only the first step on an exciting journey towards a future in which the brand can offer its customers a truly personalized and engaging experience. Keep an eye on this space for what's to come.