Ben and Jerry’s was one of the first big brands to pioneer augmented reality marketing campaigns, using an iPhone ‘Scoop of Happiness’ app to turn ice cream lids into fantastical animations that helped customers learn more about their ice creams, fostering more brand loyalty as a result.
The app let users hold their iPhone in front of a tub of New York Super Fudge Chunk, Cherry Garcia, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough or Milk and Cookies ice cream and virtual small family farms, the Statue of Liberty or flying birds spring up from the ice cream tub lid.
Users could click on the images to uncover the origin of the ice cream’s ingredients, before having the option to share the information with their friends on social networks.
Ben & Jerry's worked with its PR firm, Edelman, and "imaginative tech" development shop Circ.us, which used metaio's Unifeye Mobile SDK to roll out natural feature tracking on the iPhone.
The project, launched back in 2010, had some interesting challenges as augmented reality technology was still in its infancy. The Unifeye SDK performs natural feature tracking (NFT), which means that it is able to track 2D images that aren’t limited to black & white blocky markers.
What’s the viewer’s experience?
This feature fits in well in the Ben and Jerry’s scoop of happiness app which has other features such as Mystic Moo who can predict what flavour ice cream you are most in the mood for. The user experience for Moo Vision is seamless, there are no QR codes, and users simply scan the lid of their ice cream to unlock a bright and fun new augmented reality world.
How does this boost Ben and Jerry’s digital marketing?
The augmented reality Moo Vision feature boosts Ben and Jerry’s “It’s what’s inside that count” digital marketing campaign by interacting with consumers in a novel way to explain to them where the ingredients in their ice cream come from.
Ben & Jerry's had a very positive overall experience working AR into its campaign - a process that only took two months from start to finish, with many changes and revisions along the way.
