Besides its Twitter tour, the Vermont ice cream superpower has launched another way to get people in touch with its treats: an iPhone app that makes visions appear when you point your camera at the lids on some of its flavors.
Download the free “Scoop of Happiness” app, focus the iPhone's camera at the lid of New York Super Chunk Fudge, and through the magic of augmented reality, up pops a 3-D shot of the Statue of Liberty holding a cone. B&J's Cherry Garcia, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Milk & Cookies also carry the coding for these enhanced “Moo Vision” pictures.
Shoppers who use the app on all four lids will score an exclusive Ben & Jerry's wallpaper for their phones.
The tech behind the trick is called “markerless AR,” because it does not require a computer-generated barcode to work. Instead, programming in the app simply teaches the iPhone to recognize the patterns already printed on the lids — a big money savings, since manufacturers don't need to produce dedicated packaging to run a campaign.
Developed with PR firm Edelman and innovation agency Circ.us, the “Scoop of Happiness” campaign was originally intended to play on the Web. But when Ben & Jerry's marketing department learned that Apple would be upgrading the iPhone operating system at the same time the promotion was set to launch, the company opted to move the campaign from the desktop to the mobile phone.
It makes sense. Why restrict the campaign to those who've already bought your product, when you can get them reaching for a pint in the store?
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