The Brief

SEA LIFE, part of Merlin Entertainments, asked us to explore how a mobile app could enhance the family visit from end to end. Making it easier for parents to plan the day while giving kids fun, educational activities inside the attraction. The proof-of-concept needed to support simple, replayable play for children on-site, and help grown-ups navigate feeding times and talks, find their way around, and understand all the experiences, food options and add-ons available.

At the same time, the app had to drive commercial value by increasing secondary spend, capturing useful guest data and nudging repeat visits. It also needed to work reliably with patchy Wi-Fi, scale to multiple SEA LIFE centres, and be flexible enough to re-skin for other Merlin brands in the future without rebuilding the core functionality.

The Opportunity

Friction-mapping had shown a few consistent pain points. Parents often arrived without a clear plan, kids didn’t always have a sense of “mission” or progression, and SEA LIFE’s conservation story sometimes got lost behind the day-out logistics. That opened the door for the app to become more than a digital leaflet it could act as a playful layer across the whole journey.

We saw the opportunity to use mobile to build excitement before the visit, smooth arrival and orientation, turn tanks and habitats into interactive challenges, and make dwell time creative rather than passive. After families leave, the same app can gently keep the relationship alive with virtual pets, quizzes and follow-up content, so it feels less like a one-off guide and more like a companion to their SEA LIFE world.

Product Vision

At the heart of the concept is Ocean Friends, a simple, charming game where children build and care for their own digital aquarium. Before the visit, families choose a tank theme, add starter creatures and decorate with plants and props, creating anticipation and a sense of ownership. During the visit, kids “collect” new sea creatures around the attraction by scanning markers or QR codes, adding them to their aquarium with a short animation, an easy-to-remember fact and a gentle conservation message that unfolds as they feed and look after them over time. Different SEA LIFE locations can host exclusive creatures, turning Ocean Friends into a cross-site collection hobby that naturally encourages repeat visits.

Behind Ocean Friends sits a scalable app framework. Guests download a single SEA LIFE app, then add a lightweight, location-specific pack when they choose an attraction. Each pack contains the map, AR assets, Ocean Friends creatures and local content for that site, keeping the core app lean while making it straightforward to expand to new locations, languages and even other Merlin midway brands. From day one, the architecture is designed to be re-skinnable and future-proof, supporting the immediate proof-of-concept while laying the groundwork for a wider Merlin ecosystem.

The Guest Journey

Plan & Excite

After booking tickets online, parents are prompted to download the app, choose their language, attraction and visit date, then answer a few quick questions about who’s visiting, ages, interests and accessibility needs. In return, they receive a personalised visit plan that stitches together feeding times, talks and recommended routes for their chosen time window, plus clear pointers to essentials like buggy parks, lifts, baby changing and quiet areas. Contextual suggestions surface photo packages, behind-the-scenes tours or lunch bundles that genuinely fit their day, while a gentle introduction to Ocean Friends invites the family to set up their aquarium together the night before, ready to start collecting creatures on arrival.

Arrive

When they reach the attraction, the app shifts into guide mode. A simple, tappable map shows where they are, which zones are nearby and where new Ocean Friends can be unlocked. Their personalised timeline runs quietly in the background, surfacing nudges only when they’re useful – “Penguin feed in 15 minutes on your current route” or “Closest toilets are by the Rays.” For parents, the venue suddenly feels legible and manageable, for children, it feels like stepping into a mission they’ve been preparing for at home.

Explore

As the family moves through SEA LIFE, children collect Ocean Friends at marked tanks and displays, each scan triggering a short burst of animation and story as the new creature swims into their aquarium. At three hero locations, the app unlocks bigger AR “reveal” moments: a shark deconstructs into a floating skeleton overlaying the real tank, microscopic plankton are magnified into colourful, animated giants, and a coral reef appears to grow, bleach and recover over time in front of their eyes. These sequences are pre-loaded and offline-capable, so even venues with patchy Wi-Fi can deliver high-impact, educational storytelling that feels magical rather than technical.

Eat

During a lunch break, dwell time becomes a chance to create. Children choose a sea-creature colouring sheet in the café, customise it with pens or crayons, then use the app to scan their drawing. The system maps their artwork onto a 3D model and brings it to life as an AR character that swims around the table or floats above the tray. Families capture photos and clips with their personalised turtle or fish, and from there the app can gently introduce a linked conservation message, a donation prompt, or an invitation to discover new species and new AR sheets on a future visit or at another SEA LIFE site.

Remember

In the days after their trip, the app becomes a light-touch companion rather than a constant presence. A friendly notification reminds children to feed their Ocean Friends, leading naturally into an “Ocean Challenge” quiz about the creatures they met and the habitats they saw. Playing as a family unlocks new filters, wallpapers and selfie frames themed to favourite animals, encouraging them to reminisce, share photos and talk again about what they learned. Adopted creatures occasionally “speak up” in the app with small story beats about pollution or habitat change, turning conservation topics into ongoing conversations instead of a one-off panel on the wall. These interactions also create natural moments to present tailored return offers or cross-promotions to other Merlin attractions.

Design Principles

The experience is built offline-first, with core features like the map, Ocean Friends collection and AR reveals designed to work reliably even in zones with weak or no connectivity. Data capture is framed as a fair exchange of value, in return for basic profiles and preferences, families get planning support, personalised missions and rewards, while SEA LIFE gains insight into how guests move, what they engage with and which stories resonate.

Commercial moments are woven into the journey rather than bolted on, appearing at natural decision points around planning, meal times and memories. And because the core mechanics such as journey mapper, collection game, AR modules and data layer are brand-agnostic. SEA LIFE’s proof of concept becomes a foundation Merlin can re-skin and extend across its wider portfolio, not just a one-off build for a single site.

Response to the Brief

Together, Ocean Friends and the SEA LIFE app framework answer the brief by turning a visit into a connected, gamified learning journey that families can touch at home, in the venue and long after they leave. Parents gain clarity and confidence through personalised plans, gentle notifications and a clearer view of everything on offer, children feel like active explorers with their own creatures to discover, collect and care for rather than just spectators in front of tanks.

For SEA LIFE and Merlin, the concept unlocks new touchpoints for secondary spend and richer behavioural insight, all within an offline-first, re-skinnable platform that can be rolled out across multiple sites and brands. Conservation stories are threaded through every stage in a way that feels playful, personal and memorable, so the app is never just a utility, it becomes a small piece of the ocean guests carry in their pocket, and a reason to keep coming back to look after it.