Super Animals comprises a collection of 108 cards, each depicting interesting facts about an animal. The cards are divided into nine categories - fastest, toughest, deadliest, smartest, fiercest, weirdest, sneakiest, loudest and showiest - and can be stored in a glossy collector’s album.
The group went a step further and introduced an interactive dimension for collectors wanting more than the traditional cards and album.
One of the highlights of this campaign has been the free app, developed by local company Sea Monster, which uses augmented reality to bring the cards to life. When the cards are scanned with the app, the animal’s avatar appears. The animal’s unique sound can also be heard when one taps on the avatar. The app also creates a virtual album where the scanned cards can be stored and used to unlock achievement awards and games.
“The drawcard in this campaign was users’ ability to interact with the 108 cards that are available,” said Tiaan van Zyl, head of digital analytics for Pick n Pay’s internet marketing service, Traffic Brand.
Van Zyl said four of the top five most scanned cards were from the Big 5 collection. This is not surprising, as the Super Animals cards depicting the African lion, African leopard, African buffalo, African elephant and Black rhinoceros offer collectors an opportunity to interact with the animal avatars. With these cards, the augmented reality has been infused with animation, making it possible to go on a virtual tour with the Big 5.
“We love how our customers have embraced the app and trained up their friends on how to use it. I think we have only begun to see what can happen when we harness the power of a supercomputer with a camera in every customer’s pocket. In this campaign, it was just about having a bit of fun with the cards but I think we are going to see huge improvements to the shopping trip as smartphones and free/cheap Wi-Fi become ubiquitous,” said John Bradshaw, Pick n Pay customer and trade executive.
The top five cards that were scanned the most:
On average, the Big 5 cards were scanned more than three times in a single session. They were the only cards to be scanned as many times in one sitting, suggesting that the Big 5 have been the most popular when used with the app. The most popular category was the fastest, followed by the deadliest and smarter categories.
More than 70% of the downloads were from Android devices. As of 22 August, Super Animals was the eighth most popular download in Google Play and the most popular entertainment app on the Apple App store. It was also trending on the South African Apple store.
