Fashion and lifestyle brand Paul Frank’s recent launch of a pop-up shop in New York includes Blippar’s image recognition technology to provide interactive experiences in the store.

By combining physical and digital elements, Paul Frank is attracting a younger demographic. This age group will be more likely to interact with the mobile components and spend more time in the store.

“We explored the idea of in-store interactivity with the goal of enhancing the Paul Frank pop-up shop experience with fun, shareable content,” said Kendall Doty, vice president of digital at Saban Brands, Los Angeles. “A temporary retail initiative is very now, very social and very communal, so we added an extra, really fun layer of augmented reality to give visitors even more to engage with both in-store and across their social networks.”

Multichannel experiences
Shoppers can access the interactive, in-store experiences by downloading the free Blippar app, which is available for free on iOS and Android devices.

In the store, shoppers can enter a photo booth and be transported into an interactive experience that places them in the back of a taxicab with Julius, the monkey who serves as the iconic face of the brand, at the wheel. To experience the augmented reality, users must download Blippar, open the app and fill their screen with either the New York taxi or Julius coin.

Smartphone users can also interact with Julius to view and purchase merchandise through an animated vending machine directly from their mobile devices.

The pop-up shop will be open through Jan. 30 in the Paramount Hotel in Times Square.

Digitizing physical experiences
Other brands have utilized Blippar’s platform to lend mobile experiences to their efforts.

Procter & Gamble’s Olay recently embraced Blippar and its augmented reality capabilities to promote the brand’s Fresh Effects products with print ads in a number of beauty magazines, such as Hearst’s Seventeen and Elle magazines.

Marketers have been experimenting with numerous mobile tools to revamp their print ads for the past several years. Olay’s ad features conversion capabilities to encourage viewers to obtain a free skin consultation via the app and then proceed to buy the products (see story).

Discovery Channel’s renowned programming block Shark Week also utilized advertising mobile application Blippar to enhance physical ads with augmented reality capabilities and attract Generation Zers.

As the cable network’s fans look forward to Shark Week every year, Discovery Channel likely tried to recruit younger viewers by incorporating a mobile capability. Smartphone users could scan the ads and instantly become a part of the augmented reality experience (see story).

“Mobile is clearly the dominant digital platform for consumers,” Ms. Doty said. “The new PaulFrank.com is completely responsive to reach our fans where they’re already browsing, on their phones and tablet devices.”

Final Take
Caitlyn Bohannon is an editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York