Starbucks is launching its first major augmented reality app this holiday season that will let customers animate their coffee cups with their smartphones.
Starbucks Cup Magic launches for iPhone and Android devices in the U.S. next Tuesday. As demonstrated in the video below, the app works by pointing your phone’s camera at the company’s red holiday season coffee cups and 47 additional objects, such as bags of coffee, on display at Starbucks retail locations.
Doing so will produce animations involving five characters — an ice skater, a squirrel, a boy and a dog sledding and a fox — on your screen. You can also interact with the characters. For instance, if you tap the boy on the sled he does a somersault. Those who activate all five characters can qualify to win an as-yet-unnamed prize.
The app also includes traditional and social sharing capabilities. You can the send ecards as well as holiday offers from Starbucks, among other things.
The object, says Alexandra Wheeler, VP-Global Digital Marketing for Starbucks, is to “surprise and delight” customers during the holiday season.
