Call it awww-gmented reality: Starbucks has updated its Cup Magic augmented reality app, introduced before Christmas, in time for Valentine's Day. Send and receive 3D virtual messages by scanning limited edition love heart adorned cups — more info here.

More Valentine's brand love below, from Pizza Hut, Heineken and more:Continue reading...

Are cereal boxes "platforms for content"? So argues Mark Addicks, the chief marketing officer for General Mills, who walks USA Today's Jefferson Graham through the addition of QR codes and augmented reality to the company's cereal brands. Betty Crocker, by the way, is another digital/social platform for the company. "There's never been a time like this," observes Addicks, a 23-year veteran of the company. "Because of the digital technology that resides in people's hands … we can now deliver content that engages and enhances the experience. Before, we had to rely on a 30-second TV ad."Continue reading...

Net-a-Porter today revealed Karl, fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld's first "masstige" collection, in a global series of events that includes five pop-ups (in Sydney, New York, Paris, London & Berlin) for Lagerfeld's first diffusion line.

Launch elements included a mysterious cube in Paris, an augmented reality app to enhance the five pop-ups, and a series of fake news reports on Net-a-Porter's YouTube channel to build buzz ahead of the launch.

The collection is available exclusively on Net-a-Porter.com starting today (including rebranding its Facebook, Twitter and website with Lagerfeld's logo today) before it's available on the designer's website next month.Continue reading...

Starbucks just lost a small source of income, thanks to a chance purchase this August by Barbara Anthony, who happens to be the undersecretary of consumer affairs for the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation.

Anthony purchased a partial bag of coffee beans at a Starbucks and was dismayed to find that she was charged an extra $1.50 that wasn’t mentioned in the store itself or on her receipt, the Associated Press reports. So her office got to work and discovered that this wasn’t an isolated incident. It was happening across Massachusetts. Anthony asked friends and relatives to inquire about the surcharge in other states; sure enough, it was lurking elsewhere, too.

“People have the right to know how much they are paying for a commodity,” Anthony told the AP. As a result, the state of Massachusetts fined Starbucks $1,575 for overcharge violations at five stores, prompting Starbucks to abolish the practice nationwide on Nov. 7.

The Seattle-based coffee company justified the surcharge was “to cover the extra labor and packaging” involved when employees need to break open the presealed one-pound bags and measure out a lesser amount for consumers. The decision to stop dinging customers comes as the coffee giant rolls out its new holiday campaign.Continue reading...

This lovely spot for Twirl Bites is the beloved chocolate’s first commercial in fifteen years, as Cadbury brings some marketing muscle to promoting it in the UK. 

Reminiscent of a Rube Goldberg machine, visual effects specialists Mattes and Miniatures hand-crafted the self-contained "Twirly gig" spinning structure of fans, propellers and miniature toys on spinning plates, evocative of daily activities made sweeter with an artistic twirl.Continue reading...

Alfred Dunhill, the iconic British purveyor of luxury menswear and accessories that sells its goods under dunhill brand, says it's "spearheading the creativity of augmented reality in the work of luxury and retail."

Using Aurasma's AR lite app (downloaded by more than one million iPhone and iPad users to date), dunhill hopes to drive sales of its Autumn/Winter 2011 Voice and brand awareness. The mobile partnership's goal is to bring dunhill's new collection to life using augmented reality, so that "every appearance of the Voice campaign can now be transformed into moving images and a transactional platform."

With one tap, users can shop the latest collection from the dunhill online store or find out more about the cast of the Voice campaign. The video above shows how the app works with a print ad, but it also works with dunhill's billboards and other digital marketing touchpoints.Continue reading...

When nature-loving Henry David Thoreau wrote “I heartily accept the motto, 'That government is best which governs least,' in his essay “Civil Disobedience,” he probably never imagined an app that replaced advertising with works of art from independent artists.

The Public Ad Campaign, an underground American organization that uses “bold acts of civil disobedience” to “air (its) grievances in the court of public opinion,” debuted an app last weekend that allows mobile devices to virtually replace outdoor advertising with public art, using augmented reality to take over a billboard, bus shelter or other form of advertising.

The billboard-hating group tested its monkeywrenching app at the raucous crossroads of the marketing world, Times Square, where every ad is massive and in-your-face. As Minyanville points out, this lets Public Ad Campaign make its point without its members getting arrested, which has happened in the past.Continue reading...

What do fashion, a Chinese news agency and pizza have in common?

Times Square – hotter, and more popular than ever! And not just because it's summer.

This past Saturday, Express, the fashion retailer for style-conscious Millennials, set out to break the Guinness world record for the largest number of people modeling on a catwalk.  And despite temperatures hovering in the 100’s – they did, showing that wannabe models cannot resist a catwalk, no matter how crowded or sweaty.

A total of 1,243 people walked the Express runway, including the Naked Cowboy, police officers, tourists, and just regular locals, shattering the previous record of 521 set last year by Galeries Lafayette in Paris.Continue reading...