July 20 (Bloomberg) — L’Oreal recently launched its first ever Women in Digital competition, created to highlight female entrepreneurs making moves in the tech world. Sara Eisen spoke with two of this year’s winners, along with Bloomberg’s Karin Klein.
After creating an innovation fund last year, L’Oreal executives sought out digital-marketing startups for projects to use it with, only to find that companies it wanted to work with were often hard to identify — and that few were headed by women.
To address both issues, L’Oreal earlier this year launched its NEXT Generation Awards to honor five women leading groundbreaking digital-technology companies, assembling a judging panel including Arianna Huffington and Facebook VP-Global Marketing Solutions Carolyn Everson. The first winners were honored July 17 in New York.
The first set of NEXT Generation winners, whose companies are “very very likely” to win work at least on pilot projects for L’Oreal, according to Mr. Speichert, include:
Vivian Rosenthal, founder and CEO of GoldRun, a mobile platform with a GPS-enabled virtual camera that lets users share branded augmented-reality photos and accompanying messages on social networks, earning rewards and discounts from marketers.
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The Trophee des Champions promotion is a partnership between France’s Ligue de Football Professionnel,Front Row Marketing and the augmented reality app GoldRun, which also powered the Giants’ Super Bowl promotion. The Trophee des Champions goes to the winner of an annual matchup between two of France’s top domestic clubs.
Released in advance of a July 28 championship match between French clubs Montpellier and Olympique Lyonnais at New York City’s Red Bull Arena, it’s the first time augmented reality has been used to engage fans and promote an international sporting event. But when the Giants introduced the concept in May, seeing it catch on with the wider sports world wasn’t hard to imagine.
The Trophee des Champions promotion is a partnership between France’s Ligue de Football Professionnel,Front Row Marketing and the augmented reality app GoldRun, which also powered the Giants’ Super Bowl promotion. The Trophee des Champions goes to the winner of an annual matchup between two of France’s top domestic clubs.
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Using the free photo app, available for iPhone and Android, fans can pose with more than a dozen characters, including Scrat, narrated by Chris Wedge, Manny (Ray Romano), Diego (Dennis Leary) and Sid (John Legquizamo), from the fourth film (expected to top the box office this weekend) in the wildly popular Ice Age series.
The Goldrun app lets brands and advertisers populate the mobile space as fans and consumers share their photos on social networks and spread the word virally.
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GoldRun makes it possible to reach a global population, or to geo-target audiences accordingly. The company can customize memorable AR-based experiences that users want to share on Facebook and Twitter. Clients, from international clothing stores to movie studios, are flocking to use the GoldRun platform and reach socially connected customers …
Read the full article here
New York Giants fans followed their team through an up-and-down regular season and dramatic playoffs to an eventual NFL championship in January.
Now, the team is rewarding that loyalty in impressive fashion — with an augmented reality app that lets fans virtually try on and snap photos with the team’s Super Bowl rings and trophy.
You can share to Facebook and Twitter directly from GoldRun, or save the photos for yourself. Mashable got a sneak preview of the feature and found it easy and fun to use. Nilay Shah, the team’s director of digital media, says breaking new ground with the augmented reality Super Bowl rings was an easy decision. “This just seemed like the right thing to do,” he told Mashable. “We’re taking something sacred to the organization and letting fans do something they couldn’t do before.”
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Vivian Rosenthal, GoldRun Founder & CEO will be part of the Mobile Experts during New York Internet Week’s Make the Stage 2012 from May 14th – 21st!
Learn more about the event here.
Despite launching less than a year ago, NY-based GoldRun – a creative technology-based company, specializing in mobile augmented reality – has produced some of the most successful and inspiring virtual retail campaigns to date. Stylus talks to founder and CEO Vivian Rosenthal about how to handle an impending virtual future.
Read full report here.
Men’s apparel retail site Mr Porter, which we dubbed one of the three best personifications of the content and commerce model, is staging a mobile treasure hunt across five cities to celebrate its first birthday.
After debuting in Sydney, the treasure hunt kicks off in New York Friday and runs until March 22. Paris (March 23 to 29), London (March 30 to April 5) and Hong Kong (April 6 to 12) will follow.
Interested parties are invited to download augmented reality app Goldrun [iTunes link] to participate. The app will guide users to locations in each city, where Mr Porter shopping bags will appear — via augmented reality — on their phones. Each bag will contain a prize, such as Lanvin sneakers, Paul Smith cufflinks or a pair of A.P.C. jeans.
Read full article here.
You only need to look at the numbers to know that social media is here to stay. Two hundred million new users joined Facebook in the last year alone growing the massive social networking site to 800 million active users. Career networking site LinkedIn reported 131 million users last year, Twitter touched 100 million, and there are many other sizable and niche nuanced social media players.
So what next for social media and how do companies and brands engage more strategically amid the plethora of established and emerging platforms?
In a recent marketing campaign, Swedish clothing retailer H&Mand a mobile application called GoldRun created a virtual photo scavenger hunt allowing users to take a picture, using GPS-synced smartphones, of virtual items that appeared in front of certain H&M stores in Manhattan. Doing so unlocked a 10 percent discount for an in-store purchase. Then, with photo integration, shoppers could see how they looked in those clothes and upload the altered images onto the social networking site Facebook to share with friends.
An informative and entertaining interview with Vivian Rosenthal the Founder & CEO of GoldRun, on location at CES 2012. Vivian provides valuable insights into today’s Augmented Reality technology uses and her visions into the future of AR.
GPS Navigation, Photos, Shopping, Virtual Real-Estate and Interactive Television are some of the subjects covered in this video. She also discusses her early and fascinating inspirations leading her to creating GoldRun.
Read article here.
Hand-held devices are revolutionizing the way we interact with the world, and pioneers like Vivian Rosenthal, Founder & CEO of GoldRun, a mobile augmented reality (AR) platform, have taken cues from the technological advancements of the LG Nitro HD. Specifically, the True HD IPS Display with 16:9 widescreen capabilities are innovations that inspire GoldRun developers.
Gizmodo has partnered with LG Nitro HD to bring you On Display, an exclusive original video series in which the leaders in digital animation discuss how they do what they do and what the future of mobile tech holds for the future of creativity. For the second installment, GoldRun’s Vivian Rosenthal explains just how the LG Nitro HD’s amazing screen inspires what her startup brings to market, like their just-launched AR promotion for Nike in which shoppers are encouraged to download the free GoldRun app, find a virtual Nike shoe, and snap a picture of it near a Finish Line store for a chance to win a pair of Nike shoes.
See video here.
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Nike Air Max Flash Pack from GoldRun on Vimeo.
Hunt the virtual shoe.
Just in time for last-minute holiday shopping, Nike has teamed up with augmented reality specialists GoldRun, Akoo (an out of home TV network) and U.S. running apparel retailer Finish Line for an AR-based treasure hunt and sweepstakes. The contest’s prize package is sure to please sneakerheads and runners alike: Nike’s Air Max Flash Pack, a collection of 15 shoe designs and colors.
Shoppers in 106 malls with Finish Line stores can download the free GoldRun app, find a virtual Nike shoe, snap a picture of the shoe in front of a Finish Line store and have a chance to win one of the 15 pairs of Nike shoes awarded daily.
Shoppers with iPhones will be able to discover Nike products in a virtual way at Finish Line stores today, thanks to technology from GoldRun in New York. GoldRun raised $1.2 million in a seed round in April with a plan to conquer an emerging field: augmented reality, which is technology that adds images, sounds, or contextual information to content viewed on mobile devices. The company’s idea is to help brands virtually insert their products into consumers’ lives.
GoldRun CEO and co-founder Vivian Rosenthal says her company’s technology put virtual Nike Air Max shoes inside Finish Line stores for the new promotional campaign that shoppers can only see by using the cameras on their mobile devices.
It’s an idea that’s quickly gaining traction in the advertising and media industries. GoldRun has already landed work with Ford, HBO’s True Blood series, and retailer H&M, among others. With the help of GoldRun’s technology, these brands are creating virtual experiences for their customers and fans.
GoldRun just launched an augmented reality app that places a virtual Smurf inside your iPhone photos. The app extends the recent movie experience into reality, affording kids and parents the ability to see themselves standing right next to their favorite Smurf characters.
To keep up the suspense, a new Smurf will appear weekly, counting down to the release of The Smurfs movie on Blu-ray and DVD. But it doesn’t matter if you liked the latest Smurf feature film, hated it or never even heard about the damn thing. The Smurfs are timeless and fun characters for anyone with their hearts still lost in the original, highly nostalgic cartoon.
Jewelry brand Swarovski Elements is launching its “Let It Sparkle” campaign on the busy streets of Rodeo Drive this holiday season. The unique campaign is a combination of in-store, out of home and mobile marketing that allows consumers to virtually bring Swarovski products to life. Mobile users take advantage of an augmented reality app by GoldRun to discover pictures of limited-edition products that were made in collaboration with brands such as Missoni, La Perla and Stuart Weitzman. Consumers can then share these photos with their friends, family and virtual strangers. Swarvoski has also installed a DNA helix-like structure, on which consumers can tweet their own holiday messages using the hashtag #letitsparkle. Designers such as Roberto Cavalli, Margherito Missoni and Stuart Weitzman have written their own messages that are instantly displayed.
You say you’re more like the Julia Roberts before than the Julia Roberts after in Pretty Woman? And, yeah, you’d like to strut down Rodeo Drive all decked out in Channel and Gucci and Dolce and all with a Roy Orbison song pumping behind you? But, you know, that’s so much work? Well has Swarovsky Elements got an augmented reality app for you!
The New Media Minute has scoured the ranks of new players in shopper marketing, social media, gaming and mobile. In this week’s New Media Minute, Daisy Whitney tells us why to watch Bluefin Labs, Sonar, GoldRun and Steelhouse.
Watch video on ABC News here.
GoldRun founder and CEO Vivian Rosenthal discussed how augmented reality (AR) is changing the way that we interact with the world around us. From a digital pop-up store for Airwalk to a world-wide virtual toy scavenger hunt, Rosenthal touches on AR technology’s potential for good.
In her upcoming project “Visualize the Vote,” Goldrun is designing a tool that uses AR technology to give young people a voice in the political process. Meant to mobilize youth engagement in politics, Visualize the Vote allows users to take a picture with their favorite political candidate, geo-tag photos, and then share them within their social networks. Another project creates AR “hot zones” within a one-mile radius around animal shelters. When users enter a hot zone, their smartphones will display an image of a cat or a dog telling passersby that they need a good home.
Ford hosted an augmented reality (AR) experience on GoldRun to promote the new 2013 Ford Escape. Participants were entered to win daily-rewarded prizes in addition to a grand prize Living Social Escape valued at $3,000.
The campaign kicked off as the L.A. Adventure, a 3-day scavenger hunt set in downtown Los Angeles during Blog World Expo 2011. Users captured a unique AR object each day to unlock messages and exclusive content for a chance to win daily prizes and enter into the grand prize sweepstakes. Winners were announced November 07.
The Designer Toy Run is a 6-week global scavenger hunt that gives participants the opportunity to play and win some 250 custom toys by 30+ artists. The app was created by GoldRun in collaboration with Clutter Magazine and it showcases virtual toys which the user captures to gather points. On a heightened level of engagement, the user competes with other scavenger hunters to get the physical toy delivered to their home. Interestingly, the ‘toy runs’ have three geographical scales, so users can choose to hunt globally, in a specific city, or in a specific location within a city. Naturally, there is a social media component attached to it for users to boast about their wins and share photos throughout their adventure
Read article here.
For a few days during late October, British department store Debenhams launched an augmented reality pop up store service where shoppers can try on outfits near the UK’s tourist attractions. Shoppers with an iPhone or iPad 2 can use their device to scan the scene around 5 famous landmarks to find the store’s selection of party dresses – and once located, they can virtually try them on a picture of themselves, share and even order. Users of the Debenhams app were also given an exclusive 20% discount and could upload their images to Facebook and Twitter to get feedback from their friends and followers.
The “virtual stores” popped up at the end of last month in London’s Trafalgar Square, Glasgow’s George Square, Birmingham’s Centenary Square, Manchester’s Albert Square and Cardiff Castle in Walkess. Debenhams.com director Simon Forster says about the project:
This really is the future of shopping. It brings the hassle-free element of online, with the experience of shopping in store combined with the fantastic backdrops of iconic UK locations. It is incredible what the developments in technology mean we can now do-including trying on a dress without even having to remove an item of clothing!
Read article here.
Watch live streaming video here.
Riding on the hyped wave of New York City’s current tech scene, over 100 enthused New Yorkers filled a small room on a rainy Thursday afternoon to attend TEDxSiliconAlley. Due to technical difficulties and a few introductory catachreses, the event groaned with slow start.
The pace didn’t pick up until the founder and CEO of GoldRun, Vivian Rosenthal, a young, shaggy haired brunette dressed in black leather took the stage to speak about merging the real world with the virtual world in her short talk titled “Augmenting Our Reality.” She looked like a heroine out of a Charles Stross novel and she spoke like one too.
“Digital seduction is something we all suffer from- Facebook, Google, the list goes on and on…We have become the technology. Science fiction has become science…Futurists believe that in the near term we will reach the technological Singularity when technological advancements become instantaneous…Now, creativity becomes tantamount to technology,” she said.
You know how castles and museums can be the sexiest venues for wedding receptions and fashion galas hosted by Anna Wintour? Well the folks running the U.K.’s Debenhams department store chain sure do. Which is not to say they’re throwing a bash at Buckingham or anything (because if they were, we’d surely have been invited). No, they’re launching pop-upstores there.
Which is not to say we’re talking about the kind of pop-up store you can step into with your actual body. No, we’re talking about the kind of pop-up store you enter with your iPhone.
Starting today, and ending Saturday, Debenhams is kicking off five virtual/augmented reality pop-up stores against some of the grandest backdrops in Britain: London’s Trafalgar Square, Glasgow’s George Square, Birmingham’s Centenary Square, Manchester’s Albert Square, and Cardiff’s Cardiff Castle.
Despite launching less than a year ago, NY-based GoldRun – a creative technology-based company, specializing in mobile augmented reality – has produced some of the most successful and inspiring virtual retail campaigns to date. Stylus talks to founder and CEO Vivian Rosenthal about how to handle an impending virtual future.
In an exclusive interview with the ex-architect and life-long science fiction fan Vivian Rosenthal, Stylus discusses virtual malls, digital seduction and how in less than a decade the divide between the virtual and the real world may be almost imperceptible.
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Augmented reality maestros GoldRun are taking “Puppy World” to a whole another level. OMGPop’s Puppy World, which lets you raise different breeds of puppies by taking them on walks, feeding them and so on, is getting a GoldRun twist. The agency is adding an augmented reality aspect to the game which allows players to interact with Puppy World characters and participate in real-world “runs.” Geo-location features will make real parks around the country “hot zones” for the virtual puppies. You can take pictures of the virtual puppies in real world situations to earn points and compete to find the puppy that will eventually be added to the app itself.
Previously, GoldRun has added augmented reality to campaigns for H&M with virtual window shopping and Esquire’s February issue.
Read article here.
Running through Sept. 26, shoppers at Bloomingdale’s 44 stores nationwide can participate in a photo opp with virtual characters from NBC’s fall lineup by downloading the free app, and are eligible to win a trip to Los Angeles for an on-set visit or a grand prize trip to Chicago for a walk-on role in NBC’s new series, The Playboy Club.
In addition to posing with bunnies from The Playboy Club, Bloomie’s reps with GoldRun- loaded iPads are on hand to snap photos for customers with virtual cast members from four other new NBC shows: Whitney (starring Whitney Cummings), Free Agents, Prime Suspect with Maria Bello, and Up All Night, featuring Christina Applegate, Maya Rudolph and Will Arnett.
LivingSocial Adventures, known for producing curated social events in cities worldwide, will present a series of scavenger hunts in three West Coast cities throughout August. Participants in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle will use Apple smart phones or iPads to explore their city’s hidden gems and famous landmarks, collecting virtual objects and completing photo challenges along the way.
The GoldRun campaign sends teams of up to six players to iconic locations carefully selected by LivingSocial Adventures. Players follow clues in the GoldRun app to find each location and upon arrival snap photos with uniquely themed augmented reality objects. Fans who complete the hunt will rub elbows with their competitors at an exclusive after-party where prizes will be awarded to those who solve puzzles and complete the hunts the fastest.
“Living Social Adventures is weaving an entirely new experiential element into the concept of group purchasing,” said Vivian Rosenthal, GoldRun’s founder & CEO. “We are excited about partnering with them on these programs as they resonate with GoldRun’s use of AR to accentuate real-world, social activities.”
Read article here.
WHAT do NBC and Bloomingdale’s have in common?
Bloomingdale’s Best of Men’s catalog features Eddie Cibrian of NBC’s “The Playboy Club.”
They both have a lot of product to promote in the fall: new shows on the network, new skirts and shoes in the stores.
So the two are working together this month and next, encouraging both tune-in and walk-ins. In a marketing partnership that will be formally announced on Wednesday, Bloomingdale’s catalogs will feature actors from new NBC shows; shoppers will be invited to try out a virtual reality app that inserts them onto the red carpet of an NBC premiere; and the network’s “Primetime Preview Show” will be set partly in a Bloomingdale’s store.
Vivian Rosenthal, a marketing whiz with a master’s in architecture, has spent some 10 years churning out edgy installations, videos, and websites for clients like AT&T, Diesel, Target, and Nike as co-founder of design shop Tronic.
GoldRun CEO Vivian Rosenthal on the roof of her apartment building in Manhattan.
Combining the digital and physical worlds, augmented reality offers brands a unique new opportunity to interact with consumers. Here’s why it’s worth a shot.
Augmented reality, or AR, may finally be coming of age. Particularly for Millennials, defined as those born in the 1980s and whose lives revolve around being constantly connected to technology (Blackberries, iPhones, Facebook, Twitter, video games, and more), AR offers a serious opportunity for marketers to reach these important consumers. With augmented reality, marketers can take the physical world and combine it with the digital world, giving both users and brands the ability to connect even further with a product before, during and after making a purchase.
“In its simplest form,” says Vivian Rosenthal, founder of New York City-based AR start-up GoldRun, “Augmented Reality is a digital layer over the real world that you can’t see with the naked eye but you can see with the camera on your smartphone or computer.”
But why and how should your company use augmented reality? Aside from the simple benefit of reaching Millennials, we’ll delve into a few well-done campaigns in this guide to explain further.
Partnering with Tronic the billboard sits near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel and reads, “Today I’m Feeling _____.” Using a the GoldRun GPS augmented reality app, passerbys or drivers stuck in traffic can see if the billboard is happy or sad or, whether it feels like dancing or cheering on its favorite team.
Because the billboard is GPS tagged, a number of images can appear at the same site making it more interactive than typical augmented reality applications, essentially, taking a traditional billboard and making it digital. For example, users can change the feelings themselves using large-scale emoticons, and then post them to Facebook or Twitter.
Vivian Rosenthal once wrote an architecture masters thesis on the intersection of the physical and virtual worlds. Now, the New York entrepreneur is mining that intersection for profit with a start-up that’s getting attention for the way it uses augmented reality to create marketing campaigns that end in real-world rewards.
GoldRun, which just launched in beta last fall, allows companies to create augmented reality campaigns that can be tailored to their content, product or message. It gives brands a very visual way to engage consumers and drive specific offline or online actions with the payoff being tangible rewards, something we’ve mentioned more and more lately. Companies such as H&M, Esquire, Barnes & Noble, Universal Pictures, A&E Networks and Interscope Records are among the early customers turning to GoldRun to run augmented reality campaigns.
Big idea: “I want to turn every aspect of our lives into a game,” says the 35-year-old entrepreneur, “by marrying the digital and the physical.” Using video, animation, mobile apps, and now augmented reality, Rosenthal creates interactive advertising campaigns for brands ranging from H&M and Yahoo to Esquire magazine and shoe company Airwalk. Some of her projects seem like conceptual art, some like high-tech marketing. But at heart, they’re architecture, she asserts. “What is architecture? It’s about crafting experiences.”
Credentials: After Rosenthal graduated from Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation in 2001, she and classmate Jesse Seppi founded Tronic, a technology and design firm. One recent project: Manifold, a 60-foot sculpture at HP’s Palo Alto headquarters. One side of the piece is made of undulating fiberglass shapes; the other houses a series of identical high-definition video panels. As people pass by, motion sensors set the sculpture rotating from one surface to the other.
A&E is promoting its new series, “Breakout Kings,” with a sweepstakes where players hunt down augmented-reality fugitives on their iPhones.
The “Catch a Con” sweepstakes, run by augmented reality platform GoldRun, pulls players into the plotline of the show to hunt down escaped prisoners hiding out in New York’s Union Square, Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Row and in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
CEO Vivian Rosenthal speaks at the New York Social Media Week panel “Check In or Check Out: Avoiding Location Based Nothingness.
Watch live streaming video from smw_newyork_jwt at livestream.com
There is a new kid running around town in the world of Social Location Sharing, GoldRun. GoldRun has eschewed the check-in focus of its predecessors and is focusing on merging the real world with the virtual via your smartphone. GoldRun is an augmented reality application that is not only cool it has huge potential for brands at all levels.
The brain child of Vivian Rosenthal, who studied architecture but obsessed as a child over sci-fi (she shared with me that she was convinced her initials stood for Virtual Reality) the app brings together location specific data and branding opportunities in a way that provides the user with a fun experience. This is no mean feat. Providing an experience that the user wants, while at the same time providing a platform that brands can use in a useful way, a way that is part of the experience rather than intruding on it is the marketing equivalent of patting your head and rubbing your stomach, looks simply enough but try it while holding a conversation.
Vivian told me that one of the aims in creating GoldRun is that the app would not be the owner of the experience, they wanted that firmly in the hands of the user.
The New York Times featured an article this week on Barnes & Noble’s use of a special iPhone app that allowed Brooklyn Decker, Esquire‘s sexist woman alive, to appear in the store aisles. Ms. Decker wasn’t actually there but by using GPS technology developed by GoldRun customers could see her in various poses in over 700 stores.As exciting as this was for Barnes & Noble customers, what it portends for marketers is potentially staggering.
In the near future the virtual and real world will blend to an unprecedented degree enabled by augmented reality applications on smart phones. Here are a few possibilities:
1. BRANDING: Imagine GPS technologies allowing fashion shows (from Armani to Victoria’s Secret to GAP Kids) to take place anywhere at anytime when viewed through a smart phone. This could be a Cirque de Soleil performance in Central Park or a catwalk parade across your restaurant table.
Esquire unveiled its latest use of augmented reality technology and further established its eye for innovation with two unique experiences that extend the magazine well beyond the printed page. In an effort to form an active and engaging experience for its readers, Esquire has joined forces with GoldRun, an augmented reality platform, to create two interactive adventures using “geo-tagging” technology. For the first time ever, a magazine is using GPS technology to place a virtual image of a cover subject in a remote location. Esquire’s February cover model, Brooklyn Decker, can be “found” in over 700 Barnes & Noble stores across the country.
In partnership with Barnes & Noble, Esquire and GoldRun have made it possible to locate, interact with, and take pictures alongside the beautiful Brooklyn Decker in any Barnes & Noble store. Once users download the free GoldRun app onto their GPS enabled iPhones and hold up the device within 50 yards of that store’s magazine area, they can view Brooklyn on their screen as though she were actually present in their surrounding environment.
Find Brooklyn Decker from GoldRun on Vimeo.
Selling books got a whole lot sexier this week as Barnes & Noble hosts a virtual Brooklyn Decker. It’s all an augmented reality stunt for Esquire magazine, whose readers voted her the sexiest woman alive, prompting a February cover that is now on newsstands.
The model/actress is virtually appearing in 700 Barnes & Noble stores via GPS-enabled technology that allows iPhone users to have their picture taken with her virtual image. It’s also a clever digital marketing coup for all concerned.
TODAY’s Al Roker talkes to Esquire magazine’s David Granger about new technology, and how they together with GoldRun put a virtual Brooklyn Decker (the February cover model) in every Barnes & Nobel across the U.S.
Watch video on YouTube here.
SEXY may not be the first word that comes to mind to describe Barnes & Noble, but the sex appeal of the bookseller rose considerably this week among some readers of Esquire magazine.
A promotion for Esquire magazine allows iPhone users to have their picture taken with a virtual image of the model Brooklyn Decker at Barnes & Noble stores.
Quick Pitch: Using augmented reality app GoldRun, advertisers create scavenger hunts for virtual goods in physical locations.
Genius Idea: Buzz has been big around augmented reality, but few companies have figured out a way to turn it into an effective marketing tool. We’ve seen brands invoke everything from Iron Man masks to musical cheese snacks in efforts to incorporate augmented reality into their marketing plans. But none of these ideas exactly created the AdWords of augmented reality.
GoldRun, which launched in November with a campaign for H&M, comes closer to creating a marketing platform that will be useful across multiple industries. The app allows brands to create virtual scavenger hunts. When consumers download the free GoldRun app and sign up to follow a campaign or “run,” they can collect virtual goods from physical locations using their phone’s camera. During the H&M campaign, for instance, users could collect a different virtual item from the brand’s fall/winter collection by snapping a photo of it in front of each of its 10 Manhattan locations. Doing so resulted in an instant 10% discount on any H&M purchase.
GoldRun Demo from GoldRun on Vimeo.
Contagious chats with Goldrun, New York, about bridging the gap between the virtual and the physical worlds
As 200 people queued outside H&M on London’s Regent Street to snaffle items from the new Lanvin for H&M, designed by Alber Elbaz and released on 23 November, other shoppers are finding a more playful way to look at H&M’s collections.
Earlier this month GoldRun a free iPhone app, was launched which allows retailers to create trails or ‘Runs’ and seed them with virtual augmented reality goods.
Airwalk is making innovative use of Pop Ups to maximize bang for buck in the re-launch of the brand’s classic “Jim” shoe. Airwalk used an augmented reality app from startup GoldRun to launch pop-up stores in New York and LA on November 6. The twist: The stores were invisible.
In keeping with its “cool” approach to footwear, the promotion attracted cutting-edge shoe buyers to secret locales in New York City and LA.
Seems apt that the worlds first invisible pop up store should come from Airwalk – in literal terms, the pop up store functions through AR on your mobile device but without it, appears just to be thin air. Targeted sneakerheads were taken offline and invited to interact in a unique experience with only their mobile device.
Devised by Y&R New York’s content division, Airwalk sought to release a limited edition, re-launched Jim; the anti-gym shoe geared towards kids outside the world of organized sports and more akin to hanging on park benches or the beach. At locations such as Venice Beach and Washington Square Park, Airwalk rolled out their virtual pop up store concept and set the scene with a story told to each specific location.
Yesterday, H&M launched its iPhone mobile application on an augmented reality platform for retailers, created by GoldRun.
Always excited and intrigued by new platforms that lower the barrier for brands, agencies and retailers to jump into the mobile and geolocation space, we looked at GoldRun more in-depth.
GoldRun is an augmented reality mobile platform comprised of an app that enables users to locate, interact with and take photos of GPS-linked virtual objects positioned in the real world. GoldRun is powered by an easy to use content management system (CMS) that is equipped with a powerful promotional tool and a social network tailored for the mobile environment; the app is designed to drive traffic to physical and online destinations, increase product sales and enhance brand engagement.
