Kraft Foods is driving brand engagement by enabling grocery shoppers in Britain to point their smartphones at a tub of Philadelphia Cream Cheese and unlock an augmented reality experience that includes recipes and other content.

Kraft Foods teamed up with visual discovery app Blippar for the effort. Users can engage with packaging for the Philadelphia Cream Cheese as well as print ads to unlock content via the Blippar app.

?Augmented reality provides brands a new channel for customer engagement,? said Jess Butcher, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Blippar, London.

?Cadbury Kraft used it for the Philadelphia Cream Cheese blipp in a really effective way by making the 'Blipp' work on the standard product packaging,? she said. ?This removes the need to create new packaging or buy advertising space to promote this interactive feature.

?There's only so much you can write on product packaging, but with Blippar, you can use something as simple as the Philly tub to unlock a vast cache of fun and useful content that can be accessed right away.?

Activating content
Users with the Blippar app can open up the app, fill up their screen with an image of a Philadelphia Cream Cheese tub and watch as the interactive content is activated.

There are three calls to action. Users can view a selection of recipes using Philadelphia Cream Cheese, watch the new Philadelphia Cream Cheese TV ad and play the Philadelphia game.

In the game, users need to catch falling ingredients from recipes with a shopping basket for a chance to win coupons.

Brands are embracing augmented reality like never before because of the opportunity it provides to enhance the customer experience.

For example, Kimberly-Clark recently introduced an augmented reality mobile application that leverages mobile games featuring Disney characters to help moms and children stay motivated throughout the potty training process (see story).

Additionally, Adidas Group company TaylorMade Golf is giving magazine readers the chance to play with a new club by using its new augmented reality app to interact with the brand?s ad (see story).

Limited packaging space
Another reason augmented reality is appealing to marketers is because there is no need for 2D bar codes with the use of image recognition technology so products become interactive without the need to redo packaging.

For example, the Philadelphia Cream Cheese effort is a way to provide shoppers with valuable information such as recipes that may encourage them to purchase a product without having to add a 2D bar code to what is already limited space on the packaging.

?Brands are beginning to see that augmented reality provides not only the ability for consumers to access the calls to action straightaway from their mobile devices, but it enables ads/posters/packaging to become talking points,? Ms. Butcher said.

?We notice that whenever Blippar is involved in a big advertising campaign people tweet about it, and this is exactly what brands want for their products to become focal points of a conversation,? she said.

?Additionally, because Blippar involves image recognition, unlike unsightly QR codes, brands are becoming aware that they usually don't have to commission new artwork in order to incorporate augmented reality into their campaigns.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York