Do people need to download an app?

Not always. A short campaign can open in the phone’s browser or from a social feed, as Fred Perry’s did. A toy range or activity pack that people come back to usually works better as a free app.

Can one app cover a whole product range?

Yes. Mardles World began as one app that brought 30 sticker characters to life and grew to hold stickers, masks, story books and licensed characters. Craftis uses one app across many activity packs.

We are not sure augmented reality suits our product. Can you help?

Yes. Tell us about the product and who it is for, and we will work through it with you. Sometimes a browser game, a film or virtual reality suits it better, and we will say so.

Competing with a screen for their attention?

Then let the screen join in. A toy, a book, a pack or a poster can come alive when someone points a phone at it, and together we make what appears.

The idea Let the characters on the box climb out and play

Start a conversation Try it on the shelf

A sheep character from the Mardles range playing records at a turntable, placed on a real table through the phone’s camera. — Mardles World: a character from the range, on a real table, through the app.

Try it

What the phone adds to what you make

Three made-up products on a shop shelf. Pick one and point the phone at it. The projects under each are real.

Example A toy box

A character steps out of the box

On the shelf: A boxed toy with a character printed in the window.
Through the phone: The character climbs out on to the lid and waves. The box keeps playing after it is opened.

Seen in Mardles World

Example A book page

The diagram lifts off the page

On the shelf: An open book about space, with a small planet diagram.
Through the phone: The planet rises off the page with its moon in orbit, for the reader to turn over.

Seen in Into Deep Space, DiscovAR

Example An activity pack

The pack starts a game

On the shelf: An activity pack with a code and a maze on the front.
Through the phone: Scan the code and balloons float up to be popped, a point for each.

Seen in Craftis, CrossCountry JourneyMaker

What it does

The product stays real. The phone adds to it.

A phone or tablet camera can learn to recognise places, faces, images and objects, then draw 3D content lined up with them. The character seems to stand on the real box.

That works as play and as learning: turning a planet over is more active than watching a video about it. It also gives people a reason to pick the product up again. See how we build augmented reality.

Toys and books

Print and plastic that keeps playing

Traditional toys and books now share a shelf with consoles. A phone gives them the same pull without losing what made them good.

Mardles: augmented reality in the toys, and the artificial intelligence planned for the 2023 range.

Toys

Stickers, colouring packs, masks and story books can all start an experience. Mardles World began with two QVC presenters who wanted “something simple, fun, interactive and original”. Together we turned printed stickers into characters a child steers on a phone. The first 30 characters grew into more than 60 stickers, 20 masks, five story books and Frozen 2 and Toy Story 4 content with Disney Pixar.

A tablet held over an open space book, with a 3D space telescope lifting off the page. — Into Deep Space with Carlton Books: the telescope on the page becomes a model to turn.

Books

Pop-up books showed that a page which moves is easier to learn from. Into Deep Space, with Carlton Books, lets readers turn planets and satellites over, switch to a virtual reality journey and drive a small Mars rover. DiscovAR colouring books put a child’s own colouring into a 3D world.

Campaigns and promotions

A poster that does something when you scan it.

A printed poster, a social post or a shopping centre floor can start a promotion people stop for.

Fred Perry: step through the wreath on to the championship courts, then flip the camera for a selfie.

Crytek

To launch Film Engine at a gaming convention, a robot climbed out of a porthole in the poster and talked to visitors.
Fred Perry

Opened from Facebook with no app, a laurel wreath became a doorway on to the championship courts.
MyMall

A life-size penguin led children to Santa’s Grotto. Visits rose 12% in the trial, and it won Judges’ Choice for Innovation at the Purple Apple Marketing Awards.

Packs and apps

Fun is what keeps an app on the phone.

An activity pack on a table: a grassy island to play on appears beside the printed puzzles.

Craftis activity packs scan and play: each code opens a new activity, from colouring that comes to life to a minigame. One free app serves every pack, in several languages.

Our consumer work comes in two forms: apps made with an organisation for its own products, and our own characters licensed to others. Most are free, and most link something physical to the phone. Gamification is what brings people back.

Attractions

Information boards that talk back

Attractions already have boards and points of interest, and visitors already carry phones. Together we add 3D animation, film and voice-over to what is there.

At the Shuttleworth Collection, a motion-captured guide greets visitors at 12 stations. Knebworth House shows the view from its Watchman’s Tower in five periods of history. In the Footsteps of Kings, across Fife, won the 2019 Innovation Award at the UK Family Attraction Expo.

With no board to scan, location can start the story, as on the Invisible Worlds walk.

Discover Shuttleworth: a 1917 Royal Aircraft SE5a explored in 3D on a tablet.

How we work

From the thing in the hand to the phone

Start from the product

We agree with you what the box, page or pack should start, and what people do next.
Make it and try it

We build the characters and games with you, and you test each version on your phone against the printed artwork.
Release it and add to it

We publish it to the app stores or the web, then add new content with you as new products launch.

What we use

The mediums that fit

The mediums behind the projects on this page, from the characters to the games.

Questions

Good to know

Do people need to download an app?

Not always. A short campaign can open in the phone’s browser or from a social feed, as Fred Perry’s did. A toy range or activity pack that people come back to usually works better as a free app.
Can one app cover a whole product range?

Yes. Mardles World began as one app that brought 30 sticker characters to life and grew to hold stickers, masks, story books and licensed characters. Craftis uses one app across many activity packs.
We are not sure augmented reality suits our product. Can you help?

Yes. Tell us about the product and who it is for, and we will work through it with you. Sometimes a browser game, a film or virtual reality suits it better, and we will say so.

Your idea

Talk it through with us

Tell us what you are trying to explain, launch or change in your sector. We will work out with you which medium suits it.

Book a meeting Start a conversation

Other sectors

Competing with a screen for their attention?