This year, Starbucks has brought a little more than tradition to the table. This past holiday season, Starbucks released their first major augmented reality app that brings the characters on the red cups to life. “Cup Magic” is part of their “Let’s Merry” holiday campaign.

Augmented reality is all about growing our reality. We could all use a little more imagination and the up-and-coming AR trend is making that a bit easier. Coffee lovers simply scanned their cups, or one of 47 other items at a Starbucks location, with their iPhone or Android, and the phone’s screen brought a character to life. Animations featured five different characters: an ice skater, a fox, a squirrel, Christmas carolers, and a boy and his dog sledding. Collecting all five characters becomes a scavenger hunt of sorts, along with the app’s ability to share them as e-Cards with friends, to receive special offers, or to buy a Starbucks Card e-Gift.

When I decided to try out the app, I was with skeptical friends who did not think expect an amusing experience. While ordering, I let them experiment on their purchases. Suddenly, I heard screams and laughter. The same people who didn’t see the point of augmented reality were walking around scanning everything in sight, trying to play with different characters.

Since the app debuted November 15 it has earned an engagement rate of 91% and more than 450,000 visits. This goal is simply to motivate consumers to buy the various items in order to collect all five characters. The app provides clues on how to get all the characters and allows you to enter to win a currently unnamed prize.

Augmented reality is a burgeoning trend and businesses are still trying to figure out what approaches work best to engage consumers. Buick has been experimenting with this technique in order to boost holiday sales for their 2012 LaCrosse. This summer Krystal’s introduced an AR app that involved dancing penguins. Lego is also using AR kiosks in the toy aisle to show how what items will look like when built. What was once predicted to be a top tech trend did not see explosive growth this year, but with smartphone popularity expanding, augmented reality is sure to be a prominent part of marketing in the future.

About a year ago, Starbucks started the nation’s largest mobile payment program. Since the launch of that program there have been 26 million transactions. I think the success of this app gave Starbucks the motivation to merge their holiday spirit with the popularity of their Starbucks Card app for yet another holiday tradition. Starbucks has really gotten on board with integrating their business and marketing into our smartphone culture.

April Wilson is a New Business intern at Luckie & Company. You can contact her by email or follow her on Twitter.

Photo credit: Tristen.Pelton via Flickr

Below are some of my favorite #BlackFriday tweets and photos:

Still regretting that you missed out on that shopping bonanza?

He doesn't look very merry...

Nice attempt at trying to discourage other shoppers! Liar!

Um, guess he was telling the truth.

That can't be true. Who fights over Old Navy? #PerformanceFleece

Lines and shopping carts as far as the eyes can see. It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Consumers took it to the tweets this #BlackFriday. The power of social media continues to open new opportunities for consumer engagement and I’m excited to have a front row seat for all of the #DayafterChristmas madness.

Will Flowers is Senior Account Executive at Luckie & Company. You can contact him by email or follow him on Twitter.

I used to shop “just because.” My first part-time job was at my aunt and uncle’s pool store, which was across the street from the local mall. I wandered around stores, spontaneously spending the paycheck I just earned. In college, I kept similar habits. I’d leave my dorm and head to the nearest super center with every intention to stock up on groceries, but would come home with plenty of random items that weren’t written on my shopping list. (Especially from the dollar bins, who can resist those?)

Now that I’m a more educated consumer with responsibilities beyond testing water samples for minimum wage, I’ve had to kick those habits and be more economical. The recession has forced me to rethink how carefully I shop and according to the 2011 Annual Pantry Survey from the people at Deloitte, I’m not the only one.

Over the past few years, the recession has created smarter and more efficient shoppers. Out of 4,000 respondents to Deloitte’s survey, 75 percent said they felt they were smarter shoppers than they were a year ago, and 86 percent think they’re getting more precise about purchases. Eighty percent say they now do more research about products and already have a price point in mind.

Why is this information important to companies? Consumers are doing more research before they shop, likely using the Internet as their main resource, which helps predetermine which brands they are loyal to and which ones they will pass on before they shop. This means that a company’s online presence is more valuable than ever. Connecting early and often with target audiences outside of stores is essential to gaining their patronage.

So, what should businesses be doing to keep up with smarter shoppers? Here’s three ways customers are shopping smart, and how business can reach them.

Online Shopping Outdoes In-Store Retail

As expected, this year’s Black Friday broke sales records, but just three days later consumers spent $1.25 billion during Cyber Monday. Some shoppers want the deals that Black Friday offers, but don’t want the hassle of dealing with crowds, lines or early-morning wake-ups. Offering equal or better deals online can bring in those online shoppers.

Consumers Use Their Mobile Devices to Search for Deals

Mobile traffic increased to 14.3 percent on Black Friday 2011. Users want to shop quickly and on the go, so make sure your business operates this way. Just another reason to make sure your website is user and mobile friendly.

Shoppers Use Social Media to Exchange Tips

Immediately before Black Friday, top discussion topics on social media sites showed a focus on the part of consumers communicating with one another. Join in on the conversation. This can encourage brand loyalty and shows that your business is concerned about customer relations.

I may still enjoy buying a random item or two but I’ve learned to spend time researching the best deal is and where I can get it. Are you still shopping “just because” without any prior research, or have you become a smarter shopper?

Kayla Cille Terry is a Digital Content intern at Luckie & Company. You can contact her by email or follow her on Twitter.

Photo credit: Caribb via Flickr

The holidays are upon us and we turned to our Family Panel to answer the most important question in retailing – when should stores put up their Christmas decorations?

If you look at this data and then go out shopping this weekend, you’ll see there’s a pretty big disconnect between shoppers and merchants when it comes to getting decorations up.

We turned to moms and dads across the country for their opinions, and the chart below outlines their thoughts:

83% of our respondents think that Christmas decorations shouldn’t go up until the Monday of Thanksgiving week, or later. Almost half think that Christmas decorations shouldn’t go up before Thanksgiving. A very limited number of parents – 7.8% – are OK with decorations after Halloween, which seems to be the date that many retailers begin to get into the season. And then there are 1.3% who believe “every day should be Christmas.” They are OK if decorations go up anytime after Labor Day.

The interesting thing is that the attitude about early decorations speeding up the Christmas season doesn’t seem to mesh with customers’ shopping plans. In the same survey, we asked parents for the date they expected to have 90% of their Christmas shopping done.

Overall, about 23% of consumers thought they would have all of their shopping done prior to Thanksgiving, and 10% prior to Halloween. The biggest groups of consumers – 39.1% – said that they would be done by December 11 (two weeks prior to Christmas), with the remaining 24% not wrapping up until December 23. Only 2.4% of parents think they won’t have most of their Christmas shopping done by Christmas Eve.

As you dive down into the numbers, a couple of interesting points arise. A higher percentage of lower income households ($50K and below) plan on finishing their shopping early than $50K+ households (23.9% vs. 16.9%). But also note that 4.1% of $50K and lower households plan on waiting until Christmas Eve to finish up, as opposed to 1.2% of the $50K+ households. I believe both numbers reflect how lower income households manage their cash flow – some of them spread their purchases over a longer period of time, and other wait until they have enough cash for gift buying.

Note also the stereotype of the addled dad desperately doing last-minute shopping on Christmas Eve isn’t borne out in this study – only 0.7% of dads say that they won’t be done until Christmas Eve, while 3.9% of moms say they’ll be wrapping up on Christmas Eve. That could mean a couple of things: One, dads are just in denial that they’ll be through early, or two, moms recognize that there’s always another gift to pick up – maybe because dad forgot to get it.

More on the holidays in our next Family Panel post.

Jay Waters is SVP/Chief Strategy Officer at Luckie & Company. You can contact him by email or follow him on Twitter.

Photo credit: erewhon via Flickr

Dog food maker Naturia has created radio ads that specifically perk up the ears of their target audience – dogs.

Touted as the “first radio ad for dogs,” the spot features a 15 kilohertz tone that most people can’t hear but that makes dogs respond enthusiastically. The tone was played whenever the name Naturia was mentioned.

Dogs and their owners were convinced. Naturia reportedly saw a 28 percent increase in sales over the course of one month.

The ad shows the importance of reaching your target audience – those with two and four legs. Check out the video below.

Markus Beige is Design Director at Luckie & Company. He can be reached by e-mail.