Ferrero is an Italian chocolate and confectionary product manufacturer with over € 7 billion of annual revenue and over 20.000 employees worldwide. Loved by thousands of children of every age, the Ferrero brands such as Nutella, Duplo and the famous chocolate ‘Kinder eggs’ have always been a substantial part of our everyday live. In Germany, Ferrero offers 28 different brands on the market and employs 3,600 people.
Every year Italian chocolate and confectionary product manufacturer Ferrero launches a special edition for the Ferrero Kinder brand in Germany to surprise and fascinate children of all ages. To enhance the experience for the children, Ferrero Germany assigned Bitmama, the digital creative communication agency affiliated with the Reply network and Reply Game Studios, the Reply owned Game Studio to implement an augmented reality (AR) app: Barbie Fashionistas.
The fun starts on the smartphone or tablet. To bring the characters alive the user just has to point the camera device to the so called “markers”. The only criterion is that every smartphone and tablet is equipped with a video camera. The application is based on Vuforia from Qualcom. Such technology allows us to use an image as a marker, avoiding the use of old-style QR codes and it makes the whole experience more entertaining. The markers for Barbie Fashionistas can be downloaded and printed as well. Furthermore, the user can share his or her experience with the community on the dedicated website and get additional markers to improve the game experience. The Barbie app has been very popular with girls since they can dress up their Barbies in many different ways which gives them almost unlimited options.