Dive Brief:
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Target Corp. Wednesday announced it is participating in Google’s Project Tango, an effort to expand mobile capabilities to 3D imaging, advanced mapping, and robotics, and its Art Copy and Code program.
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The retailer is showcasing a “Bullseye’s Playground” that, the company says, “transforms the store into a 3D winter playground.” (“Bullseye” is Target’s bull terrier mascot.) The campaign features six mobile games, and while they can be played from anywhere, special signs in-store provide codes that unlock more content. The retailer is donating a dollar for each game played, up to $1 million, to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
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The retailer this month is also featuring Google’s Project Tango tablets at Target stores in Sunnyvale, CA, Chicago, Dallas, and Roseville, MN.
Dive Insight:
This project demonstrates Target’s goal of harnessing technology via several channels—an early manifestation of the virtual world that many retailers are working on right now.
At the moment the mobile website is aimed at kids; it’s a gaming experience, essentially, and a novelty. But it demonstrates the promise of more serious uses of virtual reality in retail in the future. It may also be a way to further Google’s stated ambitions to interact more with children, including “child safe” versions of YouTube and Chrome.