Agency News: Fleishman-Hillard Plays Ball With Augmented Reality

To showcase its cutting-edge commitment to digital marketing, Fleishman-Hillard created an ad for the 2009 All-Star Game program that employed augmented reality, a three-dimensional type of imagery that allows for real-time interaction between printed matter and computer images. The ad features Rawlings and uses the sports equipment company’s logo as an augmented reality marker. The audience was directed to a microsite featuring the AR component. “AR is something we see as a real stimulant to thinking,” says sports business specialist Jim Woodcock, in a recent SportsBusiness Journal article. “It presents a real way to customize and enhance a message.” Fleishman-Hillard’s most recent use of AR as a marketing tool was for Papa John’s Road Trip, part of a broader campaign celebrating the company’s 25th anniversary.