The Calgary Stampede buckles down with AR

In partnership with the Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation, the event has launched an augmented reality-based contest to target 18- to 25-year-olds with instant prizes and recycling messages.

By Katie Bailey
July 12, 2010

To activate their new three-year sponsorship agreement, the Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation (ABCRC) and the Calgary Stampede have launched a new augmented reality (AR)-based contest in tandem with the start of the event.

The contest offers Stampeders the chance to win a VIP ‘Buck the Line’ package (featuring lineup-free admission, etc.) by obtaining a coupon with an AR glyph on it and entering to win on the ABCRC ‘Don’t Be a Tosser’ website. Once the contest entry is complete, users hold their glyph up to the webcam, which activates a 3D image of a belt buckle that reveals whether or not the user has won a daily instant prize. Visitors can gain extra entries by sharing their belt-buckle image with their Facebook friends.

Using AR as the centrepiece to the contest was a bid to gain the attention of the ABCRC’s target demographic of 18- to 25-year-olds, the organization’s president Guy West said in a release, but also a bit of a PR push to be the first instant-win AR contest in Alberta.

At first glance, the partnership between the ABCRC and the Stampede is an odd one, but as Cherie Cohen, VP, communications and marketing, ABCRC, tells MiC, the sponsorship first perfectly with the ABCRC’s mandate increase its recycling rate from 70 to 85%.

In an effort to help reach that goal, the ABCRC decided to partner with the Stampede to expand the recycling bin infrastructure on-site at the event, while dually targeting the Stampede-friendly 18- to 25-year-old demographic with recycling messaging.

The partnership has several benefits for ABCRC, Cohen explaines. Firstly, the Stampede generates (metric) tons of garbage: at Friday’s opening parade alone, 350,000 people went through 100,000 single-use beverage containers – and the festival lasts for 10 days. Additionally, the funds generated from the recycled materials will be donated to non-profit organizations and the like, so that an extra bit of community good is generated from the Stampede.

‘That’s where the fit for Stampede comes into play,’ she says.

The AR application was created by Calgary’s Trigger Communications, ABCRC’s agency of record, and media partners in promoting the contest include the Calgary Sun and Corus radio station Country 105FM.