Copa90 / Jaunt — Uber x Manchester United
Destination
United
Only 1% of Manchester United's global fanbase will ever visit Old Trafford. Observatory built a six-minute immersive experience that brought the Theatre of Dreams to everyone else — taking fans on a matchday journey from living room to pitch, inside an Igloo Vision 360° dome in Bengaluru, India.
THE BREIF
The Theatre of Dreams. Teleported to Bengaluru.
Manchester United is one of the most supported football clubs on the planet — but the vast majority of those supporters will never set foot inside Old Trafford. Only 1% of the global fanbase ever makes the journey to Manchester. For the remaining 99%, the stadium exists as a distant, almost mythological place.
As Manchester United's Official Ride Partner, Uber wanted to close that distance. The concept was Destination United: a travelling experiential activation that would bring the atmosphere and history of Old Trafford directly to fans around the world, using Igloo Vision's immersive 360° dome technology. The first stop was Orion Mall, Bengaluru, India.
Observatory were commissioned by Copa90 / Jaunt to develop the six-minute centrepiece film — a photo-realistic 3D animated and 360° shot experience that took viewers on a complete matchday journey, from a supporter's living room all the way to the pitch at Old Trafford. Delivered in six weeks.
"We are collapsing space and time between the MUFC global fan base by bringing them closer to their passion for the sport and their fellow supporters — creating an opportunity to experience the Theatre of Dreams in a way only Uber can do."
Bozoma Saint John, Chief Brand Officer — Uber
THE EXPERIENCE
Front room to Old Trafford. Every step of the way.
Observatory storyboarded a "day in the life" narrative — a matchday journey told in the first person, following a supporter from their living room all the way to the heart of Old Trafford. The film combined photo-realistic 3D animation with professionally shot 360° footage captured by Jaunt at the stadium, creating a seamless journey between the animated and the real.
01
THE LIVING ROOM
The experience begins at home — a Manchester United supporter's living room, decorated in club colours, television showing a match, shirt on the wall. A photorealistic 3D animated environment that instantly establishes who this journey is for and where it begins. The Uber interface appears, the destination is set, and the journey starts.
The Journey
02
A master library of shared 3D assets — iridescent ribbon sculptures, pearl geometries, floating glass forms, X-particle head studies — supplied as Quicktime files for integration across all production teams. A shared visual DNA ensuring continuity from the tunnel to the stage to the street.
03
OLD TRAFFORD
Arrival at the Theatre of Dreams — shot in full 360° by Jaunt at Old Trafford itself. The tunnel, the changing rooms, the pitch. A matchday soundtrack of player intros, crowd songs and terrace chants filled the dome throughout, completing the sensory recreation. Fans in Bengaluru were, by every measure the technology could deliver, inside Old Trafford.
deliverables
Six weeks. Six minutes. One stadium, rebuilt in 360°.
The production required Observatory to blend photo-realistic 3D animation with live 360° stadium footage, tracking animated elements into real-world footage and grading the composite into a single unified visual world — all formatted for the specific geometry of Igloo Vision's dome environment.
Art Direction
Full creative art direction of the experience — establishing the visual language of the journey, the design of animated environments, the integration of the Uber and Manchester United brand systems, and the motion graphic approach to data visualisation and stadium statistics throughout the piece.
Storyboard + Narrative
Observatory storyboarded the complete six-minute "day in the life" narrative from brief to delivery — defining the journey structure, the transition between animated and shot environments, the pacing of the matchday build, and the key moments of club history woven throughout the experience.
Uber Brand Integration
The Uber visual identity — app interface, map graphics, the "Official Ride to the Theatre of Dreams" campaign branding — was woven into the animated journey sequences. The brand appeared as a natural part of the narrative rather than a sponsorship overlay, fully integrated into the world of the experience.
360° Animation
Photo-realistic 3D animated environments built for the 360° dome format — the supporter's living room, the city journey, the Uber ride interface. Geometry, lighting and camera placement all engineered for spherical projection, ensuring the environments felt spatially convincing to viewers standing inside the Igloo dome.
360° Tracking + Grading
Jaunt's professionally shot 360° Old Trafford footage was tracked and integrated with Observatory's animated elements — motion graphic data overlays, stadium capacity readouts and player intro graphics composited into the live footage. A full grade unified the animated and live-action material into a seamless visual experience.
Matchday Atmosphere
The experience was designed for full sensory immersion: once inside Old Trafford, a matchday soundtrack of player introductions, crowd songs and terrace chants filled the dome. The audio environment — combined with the 360° visual — recreated the emotional atmosphere of a United matchday for fans who had never heard it live.
RECOGNITION
One activation. Three awards. Global press coverage.
Destination United was recognised across the experiential and sports marketing industry — cited by Adweek, covered live on CNN International, and awarded by three separate bodies for its innovation in fan engagement and immersive technology.
Portland Advertising Federation
ADWEEK
Experiential Climbing Rose Award
Best International Experiential Activation
WINNER
FINALIST
Event Marketer Magazine
Best Sports Activation
Silver Award Winner
CREATIVE APPROACH
Make the distance disappear. Make Old Trafford Real.
The creative challenge was not simply to show Old Trafford — it was to make a fan in Bengaluru feel what it is to be inside it. That demanded more than footage. It demanded a narrative that earned the arrival at the stadium, a visual language that unified the animated and the real, and a sound environment that completed what the eyes alone could not.
Journey Earns the Destination
The decision to begin in a supporter's living room rather than immediately inside Old Trafford was foundational. By following a recognisable fan journey — the shirt on the wall, the television, the ride through the city, the build of the crowd — the production created emotional investment before the stadium was revealed. The arrival at Old Trafford felt earned because the journey to it had been lived.
Dome as Stadium
Igloo Vision's 360° dome was not just a delivery format — it was the architecture of the experience. Every spatial decision in the animation and composition was made with the dome in mind: where a viewer would look on entering, how the curved geometry of the screen would frame Old Trafford's stands, where the crowd would appear to surround them. The dome became the stadium.
Blending Worlds
The seamless transition from photo-realistic 3D animation into Jaunt's live 360° Old Trafford footage was the technical heart of the piece. Film tracking and grading unified two entirely different visual sources into a single coherent world — so that the moment the viewer moved from the animated city into the real stadium, the transition felt like arrival rather than edit.
Recognition and Awards
The project was covered live by CNN International and picked up three significant industry awards: the Portland Advertising Federation Experiential Climbing Rose Award, an Adweek Best International Experiential Activation finalist nomination, and the Event Marketer Magazine Best Sports Activation Silver Award. Manchester United's Managing Director Richard Arnold said the project demonstrated "really creative ways to connect with fans worldwide."
