British retailer Tesco has launched multi-channel campaign to promote its Big Price Drop initiative, [video] a part of which is being fueled by AR technology. It is a major campaign, Mobile Marketing magazine says, with a major two week TV campaign, high-density Out of Home advertising, a digital campaign, a national print advertising and week-long radio activity. Underpinning the print and DOOH activity is a relative newcomer to the AR space - Blippar.

"By hovering their smartphone in blippar mode over a Tesco outdoor or press ad, customers will be able to access store location information and download daily recipe ideas," Mobile Marketing magazine says. Blippar and other new entrants offer the potential to expand AR use in print and DOOH ads.

A post by eConsultancy also suggest the technology is flexible enough to be come a QR code killer.

Users still have to download the Blippar app, which is still a drawback. However, "unlike QR codes, the whole ad is the response mechanism, so just pointing it in the general direction of the ad works. Some of the Blippar ads do provide more of a wow factor, while the user experience is smooth, the ads and landing pages worked very quickly when I tried them."

Much will depend on building awareness of the app, however eConsultancy concludes - which Tesco’s campaign will help.