Invesco QQQ’s Recipe for Innovation Kitchen Multiplayer Game at the NYCWFF Staring Chef Kwame Onwuachi

Groove Jones worked with TH Experiential and Episode Four to create a captivating, interactive experience for Invesco QQQ‘s activation at the NYC Wine & Food Festival in Brooklyn. The goal was to merge the world of culinary creativity with Invesco’s innovative spirit by developing a two-player interactive game, “Recipe for Innovation,” hosted by James Beard Winner Chef Kwame Onwuachi.

This dynamic experience allowed festival guests to explore and celebrate the forward-thinking companies within the Invesco QQQ ETF while engaging in a fun, chef-inspired competition.

Invesco QQQ wanted an activation that would attract attendees and provide an engaging way to interact with their brand, which was elevated and innovative and had never been done before. The experience needed to reflect the festival’s culinary theme while seamlessly integrating Invesco QQQ’s messaging around innovation and the cutting-edge companies found in their ETF. In addition, the game had to offer a unique, social media-worthy outcome to increase brand awareness and leave a lasting impression on guests.

The production features a hologram of Chef Kwame Onwuachi, who hosts the cooking competition. Fans face a head-to-head challenge, where they become Chef Kwame’s Sous-Chef and help him prepare one of his custom recipes developed for Invesco QQQ, which five companies inspired in Invesco QQQ ETF.

The experience took place inside a volumetric stage, which included three floor-to-ceiling LED walls that displayed the digital kitchen and brought it to life.

Groove Jones designed and developed Recipe for Innovation, an immersive two-player game that combined digital gameplay with real-time interactive gestures, all powered by a custom-built app. Guests competed to prepare a recipe in a fast-paced, multi-stage challenge that included:

• Ingredient Selection: Players must select the five critical ingredients for their selected recipe.
• Ingredient Preparation: Using touchscreens, players slice, chop, dice, and prepare their ingredients based on Chef Kwame’s instructions.

• Chef Kwame Onwuachi Cooking: A hologram of Chef Kwame Onwuachi appears on a large LED display to cook and season the ingredients.
• Plating the Dish: Players competed to plate their dish creatively, matching Chef Kwame’s design, for a photo-worthy finish.

During the Plating round of the game, players needed to match Chef Kwame’s recipe designs found in the Recipe for Innovation cookbook created for Invesco QQQ. The recipes included –

• Best Bites of the Ocean, inspired by Google, with tuna, hamachi, and uni swimming together in a mouth-watering escovitch sauce.
• Workout Chicken, inspired by Lululemon Athletica, is a mouthwatering chicken cacciatore atop a hearty brown rice coconut risotto.
• Kitchen Cabinet Chicken, inspired by Kraft Heinz, is a Caribbean staple brown stew chicken with pepper jam, confit pearl onion, and ketchup.
• In-House Halal Cart, inspired by Doordash, shawarma roasted chicken, and braised lamb shank on a rich bed of turmeric rice.
• Health Me Please, inspired by Moderna, with fresh fruit and homemade granola, top this gluten-free, dairy-free, and no added sugar dish.

The ingredients were meticulously recreated in CGI, so the plating experience looked as realistic as possible. The gesture controls needed to be simple and intuitive so that the players could not only place the ingredient items on the plate but also render them in real-time so they looked appealing and elegant. Below are the actual dishes that people created at the event. Some closely matched Chef Kwame’s designs. Some player took the opportunity and were inspired to create their designs. (Some included happy faces.)

Game Design & Experience

Groove Jones leveraged its GrooveTech App technology to expedite production and create a seamless experience. The app-powered interactive touch screens allowed players to select and prepare ingredients, while an LED display showcased the game animations in a high-end kitchen setting in real time. The back display included what the players were doing on their screens, allowing audience onlookers to participate in the experience. Throughout the event, several hundred dishes were digitally created; each dish was unique and highlighted the participants’ creativity.

The final element of the experience was a photo of each player’s plated dish, which was shared via email and included a unique social share image to promote Invesco’s brand online. Onlookers took photos and videos of the unique and unexpected experience.

AI-Powered Gameplay

To elevate the competition, Groove Jones integrated AI technology that graded the players’ performance during the gesture-based prep and plating stages. This AI-driven grading system compared the ingredients used and placement and enhanced the overall challenge, encouraging players to return for another round to improve their scores.

Event Integration & Logistics

The TH Experiential team led the development of the physical structure and design of the activation footprint with Episode Four. Our team provided thorough leadership and know-how regarding the user experience and the implementation of the technologies. CGS Premier fabricated the two story shipping containers.

In addition to the game, Groove Jones developed a user registration system that collected attendee information and allowed guests to sign up for the game in advance. A branded email containing a unique QR code was sent to each guest, which brand ambassadors scanned at the event to trigger gameplay and later deliver social share images of the final dish. TH Experiential provided a brand ambassador for each player to help coach them during the experience.

Groove Jones also managed all technical aspects of the activation, including hardware setup, game testing, and onsite support for the duration of the event. To ensure smooth operation, the team traveled to New York to oversee the installation and provided technical training to the event’s brand ambassadors.

Kwame Vs. Kwame Game Play

The Recipe for Innovation game was a standout activation at the NYC Wine & Food Festival, offering an engaging way for attendees to interact with Invesco’s brand while enjoying the fun of culinary competition. Hundreds of players participated, and the social share feature extended the activation’s reach well beyond the festival, with users sharing their personalized plating photos on social media. We delivered 100% maximum throughput at the event, and it was a stand-out experience, being the only digital activation.

Episode Four delivered a special occasion for fans, including a Kwame Versus Kwame version of the game on opening day, Where Chef Kwame served as a Sous-Chef to his hologram version. Select fans then got to play against him in several head-to-head competitions.

Key Highlights:

• Interactive Gameplay: Multi-stage chef-inspired competition incorporating AI gesture control.
• LED Display Animations: High-end kitchen setting with a chef hologram guiding players.
• Social Sharing: Players received personalized images of their final dish for online sharing.
• Seamless Event Integration: Pre-event registration system with QR code gameplay entry.
• AI Grading: Gesture-based gameplay with AI-enhanced scoring to boost engagement.

Groove Jones successfully combined Invesco’s innovative spirit with the NYC Wine & Food Festival’s culinary excitement, leaving a lasting impact on festival-goers and enhancing brand engagement through interactive play.