Customer Acquisition: Office Depot Uses Augmented Reality to Lure Millennial Shoppers Into Stores

Office Depot launched an augmented reality/mobile campaign earlier this year with rock band R5 that targets millennial back-to-school shoppers with the hopes of bringing them into its stores.

The campaign, called Gotta Get INSPIR5D, runs July 21 through Sept. 30, at most Office Depot and OfficeMax store locations. It gives in-store shoppers using Office Depot's mobile app the opportunity to watch R5 come alive on their phone screens. The app is triggered by a six-foot by eight-foot display showing an empty stage. Once the app detects the display, augmented reality overlays a video of R5 that shoppers can pose next to. Fans can then take screen grabs or share the video via Facebook so they can access it later.

Adding to the experience, shoppers who make an in-store purchase of $75 or more receive a limited edition R5 "Gotta Get INSPIR5D" mobile-enabled sheet of stickers. Scanning the stickers with the Office Depot app unlocks the campaign's website, which contains exclusive photo and video content from R5 as well as a code to redeem four free songs. Visitors can also participate in the Gotta Get INSPIR5D campaign via social media using #INSPIR5D. Finally, music fans were offered the chance to win a trip to Chicago to meet R5 and attend its concert on Sept. 19. Runners-up won guitars autographed by R5.

To promote the campaign, Office Depot relied on three pre-roll video ads and social posts that targeted R5's fans. In addition, mobile calls to action appeared on shoppers' smartphones around OfficeMax and Office Depot stores that prompted them to download the company's app. Office Depot's latest omnichannel campaign comes following its successful initiative last year with rock band One Direction, which resulted in more than 150,000 downloads of its mobile app.