Launching the inaugural LUSH House at SXSW

At SXSW 2023, the globally recognized festival celebrating the intersection of film, music, technology, and culture, LUSH introduced its first-ever LUSH House. It was a bold move into immersive experiences, created to engage both fans and thought leaders.

LUSH House brought the brand’s values to life through interactive installations and creative technologies. It offered a fresh way to experience LUSH’s unique approach to retail, storytelling, and community-building, making it a natural fit for an event that celebrates big ideas and brand innovation.

At the heart of LUSH House was a motion capture activation, combining interactive technology with real-time animation. Using state-of-the-art motion-capture suits and zero-latency streaming, we brought fan-favorite characters Snow Fairy and Lord of Misrule to life in an entirely new way.

From a remote location, actors performed as the characters, enabling live conversations with guests inside the space. The result was a seamless blend of digital and physical worlds, giving visitors a rare chance to interact with the brand’s most beloved personalities.

LUSH has long been a pioneer in retail, known for pushing boundaries and building a global sense of community. LUSH House extended this ethos, becoming a space for dialogue around digital divestment, human rights in the online world, and the future of social platforms.

Mayda’s Executive Creative Director, Carl Addy, joined these conversations, offering insights on immersive storytelling and the evolving role of technology in shaping connection and experience. The discussions explored how innovation can bring people closer and transform the way brands engage with their audiences.

SXSW is where creativity, technology, and culture collide, making it the ideal place to launch something as bold and experimental as LUSH House. Our partnership with LUSH gave us a chance to push creative boundaries and show how immersive experiences can bring stories to life in fresh, fun, and unforgettable ways.