"With a belief that “It’s only worth it if you enjoy it,” Michelob ULTRA developed boundary-breaking innovation to enable John McEnroe to face off against his own legacy, and embrace the joy he denied himself as a player. Tennis met science fiction as John McEnroe revisited his career, playing a real match, in the flesh, with a real crowd, against five virtual versions of himself from the past. Artificial Intelligence, Unreal MetaHuman technology, and machine learning created avatar versions of McEnroe from five pivotal career moments. A specially designed court with a particle-mist screen allowed the avatars to appear and play against John. Every move from Virtual McEnroe was synchronized with an intricate robotic-return system to accurately replicate John’s style of play.

McEnroe vs. McEnroe was a throwback to an incredible career, but it was made possible with the most futuristic technology available. So, how do you create a virtual version of McEnroe that looks, thinks, and plays like him? The idea was conceived in April 2020. But it wasn’t until December that the idea entered R&D, discussing how exactly to make it a reality. In January, we agreed on the physical event space design. Then in February, the avatars were brought to life via scanning and motion capture of John and designed to look just like him with Unreal MetaHuman technology. After analyzing every single match from John’s career, each avatar was programmed, with adaptive Artificial Intelligence, to think and play just like John. Finally, all of that programming was seamlessly incorporated into the avatars’ game play.

Every move is synchronized with an intricate ball-return system to accurately replicate McEnroe’s style of play from different years of his career. Carefully orchestrated ball launchers and robotic arms were used to simulate young McEnroe’s ball strokes. A specially designed particle-mist screen allowed the avatars to appear and play against John, with the avatars moving around the court and returning the ball. We essentially created a gaming experience in the real world for everyone watching. By creating McEnroe’s avatars in the Metaverse, it allowed us to add a real-time animated XR layer of the avatar to the camera feed for the viewers at home, allowing us to supplement the traditional, everyday, tennis camera angles with angles that had never been possible before.

A seamless, multichannel user experience brought the campaign to life. From ESPN+ to YouTube, to all social communications and the campaign website, all campaign touchpoints were carefully designed to create a holistic brand world, serving up joy like it’s never been seen before."