Case Study: Morgan Motor Company & Apache

How Apache Delivered an Ultra-Scalable High-End Digital Retail Experience for Morgan Motor Company 

For over a century, Morgan Motor Company has represented the pinnacle of British coachbuilding, offering a bespoke experience where every vehicle is tailored to its owner. To bring this vision online, Morgan partnered with Apache, a 30-year veteran in crafting cutting-edge 3D and immersive digital experiences for global brands.

Apache’s first-generation configurator for Morgan, built on a conventional game engine, performed well on desktop. As mobile traffic grew, Morgan tasked Apache with extending this immersive experience to all devices. It was here they encountered a critical roadblock: The original technology, not being purpose-built for the web, could not meet the severe performance demands on mobile browsers.

Determined to find a solution without compromise, Apache’s technical team evaluated the landscape of web 3D development tools. As experts in immersive technology, they had already ruled out cloud-based Pixel Streaming, understanding that its inherent drawbacks – input lag, high running costs, and connection dependency – did not contribute to the user experience that they were striving to create. Other web frameworks lacked the required performance and the artist-friendly workflow essential for a premium configuration experience. This led them to Wonderland Engine, the only platform specifically designed to solve this exact challenge.

The Challenge: Outstanding Quality with Maximum Accessibility 

The central problem for any high-end 3D web configurator is a fundamental conflict:

• High-Fidelity: Luxury products demand realistic detail, complex lighting, and extensive customisation options. This results in large 3D models and textures.
• Universal Accessibility: Customers access configurators from a wide range of devices, from high-end gaming PCs to low-end laptops and, most critically, mobile phones with limited processing power and variable internet connections.

The conventional solution to this problem is Pixel Streaming. This approach renders the 3D experience on a cloud server with high-end GPU and streams it as a video to the user. However, this creates a set of unacceptable compromises:

• Prohibitive Running Costs: Pixel Streaming can cost upwards of $0.25 per user, per minute. For a popular configurator, this can translate into millions of dollars in annual server fees. See our Pixel-Streaming Cost Calculator.
• Poor User Experience: The video-based nature of streaming introduces noticeable input lag and stutter, turning a real-time interaction into a sluggish, disconnected experience.
• Connection Dependency: The experience is entirely reliant on a stable, high-speed internet connection, and falls apart for users on the move or with poor connectivity.

Apache needed a solution that could render locally on the user’s device, eliminating these drawbacks while still handling the visual complexity of a coachbuilt Morgan sports car.

The Solution: A Future-Proof Platform for Automotive 3D 

Apache chose Wonderland Engine because it delivered on the key pillars of a successful digital marketing experience:

1. Uncompromising Performance on Any Device: Wonderland Engine’s hyper-optimised core delivers a fluid, app-like experience directly in the browser, with no compromises on features or visual quality for lower-end hardware.
2. An Accelerated Development Workflow: Its visual editor and near-instant (<1 second) packaging time empowered Apache’s artists to test changes immediately, drastically accelerating the production cycle and getting to market faster.
3. Total Creative Control Over the Brand Experience: The platform provided complete control to develop bespoke shaders that perfectly matched Morgan’s signature materials and lighting, ensuring flawless brand representation.
4. Protection of High-Value Digital Assets: Wonderland Engine packages all data into a proprietary, obfuscated format, safeguarding the brand’s valuable 3D models from unauthorised use.

The Business Impact: Key Performance Indicators 

The deployment of the Wonderland Engine-powered configurator translated directly into measurable business growth, increased brand engagement, and significant cost savings.

• Direct Impact on Sales: Around 100 enquiry leads per month are generated from mobile configurators. These opportunities help to support Morgan’s sales volumes of around 700 vehicles per year.
• Deepened Brand Engagement: Average session duration of 6.49 minutes. Engagement rate of over 73%, 30% of users use all the stages of the programme and reach the end summary page.
• Maximised Audience Reach: Over 50% of all configurator traffic now comes from mobile devices.
• Sustainable Cost Model: The likely high, recurring server fees of Pixel Streaming, rendered these methods out of reach for a company of Morgan’s size. The configurator powered by Wonderland Engine has facilitated a universally accessible configuration experience for all Morgan customers.

“Our partnership with Apache is built on trust. The result is a world-class configurator that allows customers to tailor their dream Morgan via a seamless experience on any device.”

Toby Blythe, CMO, Morgan Motor Company

“We needed a tool that could handle the heavy lifting - logic, animation, and high-quality materials - without alienating mobile users. Wonderland Engine allowed us to deliver a premium 3D experience that loads quickly on the devices our customers actually use.”

Adam Vahed, CEO, Apache