In an effort to “surprise and delight" customers during the holiday season we created the Cup Magic augmented reality app. It let customers bring the world around their coffee cup to life.
The app worked by pointing your phone's camera at red holiday season coffee cups and 47 additional objects, such as bags of coffee, on display at Starbucks retail locations.
Doing so produced animations involving five characters — an ice skater, a squirrel, a boy and a dog sledding and a fox — on your screen. You could also interact with the characters. For instance, if you tapped the boy on the sled he did a somersault. Those who activated all five characters qualified to win a prize.
The app also included traditional and social sharing capabilities. You could send e-gift cards as well as holiday offers from Starbucks, among other things.