Video Release of McDVISION Avatar Pandora Augmented Reality Experience

During the month and into January, product packaging in the U.S. for Big Macs will feature an AR Thrill Card on the side of each box, delivering an up-close experience with the rich environments of Pandora, and revealing insights into the characters, fauna and flora from the movie. Displayed before a webcam, the perforated Thrill Card becomes a portal into three unique, immersive Pandora environments the Pandoran Rainforest, the Hallelujah Mountains and the Tree of Souls.

Players control their AR experiences by moving and tilting the Thrill Cards through the world of Pandora. They are invited to Touch the Mysterious Anemonids where they watch the Pandoran Rainforest light up as they touch the bioluminescent Anemonids. Players are then beckoned to Navigate Across Ancient Vine Bridges, where they can show their balancing skills by crossing the shaky vines to reach the Hallelujah Mountains. In the third scenario, Find Mystical Woodsprites, players explore the willow tree in search of the mystical Woodsprites, and watch them come to life.

Source : augmented-reality-news.com

Mc Donald’s Orders Up Augmented Reality From Total Immersion, in Global Promotion For Fox’s ‘AVATAR’

AR Experiences Connect Film and Filmgoers Worldwide, In Biggest Mass Deployment of Augmented Reality to Date.



LOS ANGELES (Dec. 17, 2009) – You’ve seen the trailer — now grab a bite of augmented reality to accompany your Big Mac as you gear up for the Dec. 18 opening of 20^th Century Fox’s “Avatar.”
Augmented reality pioneer Total Immersion (www.t-immersion.com) today announced that it has teamed up with McDonald’s on a global promotion for the film at its restaurants in 40 markets around the world – the most extensive deployment of AR technology to date.  The promotion kicked off earlier this month, on hundreds of millions of McDonald’s boxes — and, on Dec. 18, on the web, at www.mcdonalds.com/avatar.
During the month and into January, product packaging in the U.S. for Big Macs will feature an AR “Thrill Card” on the side of each box, delivering an up-close experience with the rich environments of Pandora, and revealing insights into the characters, fauna and flora from the movie.  Displayed before a webcam, the perforated “Thrill Card” becomes a portal into three unique, immersive Pandora environments – the Pandoran Rainforest, the Hallelujah Mountains and the Tree of Souls.
Players control their  AR experiences by moving and tilting the “Thrill Cards” through the world of Pandora.  They are invited to “Touch the Mysterious Anemonids” where they watch the Pandoran Rainforest light up as they touch the bioluminescent Anemonids.  Players are then beckoned to “Navigate Across Ancient Vine Bridges,” where they can show their balancing skills by crossing the shaky vines to reach the Hallelujah Mountains.  In the third scenario, “Find Mystical Woodsprites,” players explore the willow tree in search of the mystical Woodsprites, and watch them come to life.
“The McDonald’s/Avatar promotion delivers augmented reality on an unprecedented global scale,” said Bruno Uzzan, CEO, Total Immersion.  “It’s by far the widest use of AR we’ve ever seen, potentially touching hundreds of millions worldwide.  At the same time, it signals the arrival of digital experiences, to complement durable goods in the marketplace – a trend we expect will accelerate in the months and years ahead.
“Augmented reality does more than engage customers – it enlightens and entertains as well,” he said.  “We’re as excited about the upcoming release of ‘Avatar’ as moviegoers worldwide, and this promotion with McDonald’s extends both the trailer and the energy building around the film.  We’re absolutely thrilled to be part of this, and to offer a technology that conveys to consumers the magic of the movie.”

Source : augmented-reality-news.com

Avatar : Avec Coca Zero et la réalité augmentée

Vous connaissez surement le prochain film de James Cameron : Avatar. Pour les retardataires je vais vous indiquer le lien vers notre dernier billet parlant de ce sujet avec la carte électronique Avatar. La sortie en salle approche, le service de communication doit faire le plus de publicité possible et utiliser tout les canaux de communication notamment le dernier à la mode qu’est la réalité augmentée. Ici la célèbre marque de boisson Coca Cola a signé un partenariat avec Avatar pour en faire la promotion et utiliser le support de la bouteille du Coca Zero pour y insérer le marqueur. Ce weekend dans les salles vous avez peut être pu apercevoir la publicité, si vous n’êtes pas dans ce cas,  je ne rate pas l’occasion de vous la présenter. On y voit un jeune homme qui rentre chez lui, allume son ordinateur (jusqu’ici rien d’anormal ) quand soudain il se saisit de sa bouteille de Coca Zéro et soudain il a  l’air très surprit car un vaisseau du film apparait à l’écran (oui il est bizarre, il se regarde boire sa bouteille à la webcam mais bon c’est une publicité). La caméra détecte automatiquement le marqueur “AVTR” présent sur la bouteille et lance la modélisation de l’appareil virtuel. L’idée est très bonne d’imprimer automatiquement le marqueur sur le produit, on a vu ce concept récemment avec Chocapic, en ce qui concerne la disponibilité je n’ai pas beaucoup d’information,  il est certain que cela arrivera en France je ne sais pas quand mais bientôt vu que le film sort en salle le 16 décembre, on espère voir bientôt débarquer cette bouteille “magique” dans nos hypermarché en plus cela fera un joli objet collector. Wait & See


Source : la-realite-augmentee.fr

Marketers Hop on Augmented Reality Bandwagon to Promote 'Avatar'

Will Efforts by Coke, McDonald's to Plug Fox's Much-Anticipated Movie Finally Take Nascent Tech Mainstream?

LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- Is augmented reality ready for prime-time? Twentieth Century Fox and a quartet of brands are about to test the emerging technology's mettle as a marketing tool to promote the Dec. 18 release of "Avatar," the first live-action movie to be produced and released entirely in stereoscopic 3-D.

On AVTR.com, consumers can utilize AR-enabled packaging created by Coke Zero that expands the 'Avatar' storyline.

Augmented reality, or AR, is a hologram-like technology that allows consumers to interact with 3-D images displayed on any monitor. (Think Princess Leia in the first "Star Wars" -- "Help us Obi-Wan, you're our only hope" -- you you'll get the idea.) In recent months a host of brands ranging from Lego toys to Topps trading cards to Toyota have experimented with AR. Now McDonald's and Coke Zero are joining the fold through a pair of marketing partnerships with Fox in support of the James Cameron-directed movie. Fans and skeptics
Augmented reality has garnered more than its share of enthusiasm from early adopters and tech geeks, but its marketing value is yet to be determined. Is it a passing fad or truly useful in creating richer digital-marketing experiences? The jury is still out. A majority of consumers still don't have webcams, which are needed to play with AR on the PC. And many feel PC-based AR is less compelling than the mobile AR-based utilities that have started to unfold, but consumers need smartphones for that, and smartphone penetration in the marketplace is still small but growing steadily.
"Augmented reality has become a unique way for consumers to interact with an IP, and for us it's a way to extend the experience with the movie," said Rita Drucker, senior VP-film promotions at Fox. "Given that consumers are interacting with the interactive space in a much more aggressive way, we're looking at unique ways to engage that digitally."
Because much of "Avatar" is seen through the eyes of Jake Sully, a paraplegic war veteran who undergoes an AR-inspired program, called Avatar, the movie's marketing partnerships will expand that storyline.
Coke Zero's expansive program includes a commercial, airing on TV and in cinema, as well as a significant digital presence with AVTR.com. While the site was created in collaboration with Twentieth Century Fox and Lightstorm Entertainment, Coke Zero is running and producing the site, with minimal branding, where consumers can go to utilize AR-enabled packaging created by Coke Zero. There are 140 million cans and more than 30 million fridge packs, as well as bags, bottles, popcorn bags and fountain drink cups flooding the market, beginning this month. All are emblazoned with Coke Zero logos and utilize AR. Worldwide, Coca-Cola ads will be found in 86% of cinemas.
"We wanted to step outside our comfort zone. In putting together the movie marketing program, we looked at a number of different technology elements," said Chip York, director-worldwide entertainment marketing director, noting the program is rolling out in more than 30 countries. "Augmented reality is something a lot of companies are playing around with right now, and we haven't."
A first for many
Mr. York also said the technology should resonate with and create buzz among Coke Zero's target customer, 18- to 24-year-old males. But the brand is focused on keeping it simple, as it will likely be the first time many consumers are using the technology. Once consumers have downloaded an application from AVTR.com, they can simply hold up the can or bag to a webcam to get a virtual ride in a Samson Helicopter from the movie that Sully flies in. In some countries, primarily Asia, lobby displays in theaters will allow consumers to explore AR in theaters. A Coke Zero TV spot for the movie also demonstrates how the technology works.
McDonald's will be employing a similar approach with its campaign, which will kick off during the movie's Dec. 18 opening weekend. The global partnership will span everything from a special Happy Meal that will take kids to an "Avatar"-branded site that will be part of the fast feeder's McWorld virtual world to a young-adult-oriented Big Mac tie-in that will redirect consumers to McDonalds.com/Avatar. McDonald's will support the promotion with two general-market TV spots as well ads for the Hispanic and Asian-American markets, general-market and African-American print and radio ads.
All the marketing muscle behind a still-nascent trend among gamers and other web-savvy consumers seems like it will do more to enhance AR's profile than the movie it's marketing. As Razorfish's Garrick Shmidt recently wrote in an Ad Age DigitalNext post, "After the 'gee whiz' factor is exhausted, there's not really much there to sustain any real engagement. Besides, there's a vague whiff of 'Dungeons & Dragons' around this stuff that will be hard for most to get over."

Avatar Coke Zero can

Coke Zero's Mr. York added, "We're all going to experiment now, but [eventually] we're going to want to see some results. ... There's a rich opportunity to customize content, promotions and marketing. And by customizing messages and providing different messages, we'll be able to tie it into actual business results." "Avatar" also marks a continued investment on Coke's part in movie marketing. While the Coca-Cola Co. claims music and sports as its primary areas of cultural focus, Coke Zero's focus is entertainment, film and gaming, Mr. York said. 2008's James Bond flick "Quantum of Solace," which Coke Zero marketed in more than 50 countries last year, was the company's first global movie sponsorship in almost 10 years.
Other domestic "Avatar" marketing partners include Panasonic, the film's technology partner LG, which will launch an "Avatar"-themed campaign for its new Projector Phone Dec. 11, and Mattel, which rolled out an "Avatar" line of action figures earlier this year.

Source : adage.com

Avatar et la réalité augmentée

Vous avez très certainement entendu parlé du film “Avatar“, pour le reste, Avatar est un film de science fiction avec une bonne partie du film en image de synthèse réalisé par James Cameron (Titanic, Alien…) . Évidemment de plus en plus de campagnes de communication pour des nouveaux films passent par l’utilisation de la réalité augmentée pour présenter et mettre en action des personnages ou des créatures du film. On avait vu le concept similaire avec District 9 où on pouvait mettre en scène grâce au marqueur une créature du film avec également la possibilité de lui demander de réaliser des mouvements. En ce qui concerne Avatar, le marqueur est différent, il n’est pas sous forme de code barre comme on a pu le voir auparavant, c’est une carte avec un logo. Elle n’est par contre pas disponible sur internet, nous espérons qu’il fasse au minimum un marqueur “simple” pour que tout le monde puisse s’essayer à la réalité augmentée avec Avatar.
Pour information le film sort le 16 décembre 2009 dans nos salles.
Source: Moviefone.co.uk


Source : la-realite-augmentee.fr