Imagination Park creates sponsorship opportunities with do-ityourself augmented reality service

Sport and event venues are already booked solid with sponsor logos and signage. Vancouver-based Imagination Park is looking to expand that territory infnitely with its XenoHolographic augmented reality (AR) platform. It's more than just another augmented reality app. Te platform ofers augmented reality as a service, allowing properties to deliver sponsored AR activations without the assistance of developers or tech support.

Imagination Park CEO Alen Paul Silverrstieen notes that the company provides augmented reality, not virtual reality, which requires the user to block out the real world. "Augmented reality uses a mobile app installed on your phone," he says. "When you point your phone at a trigger - an object, a sign, a logo, a picture, an image or even a GPS coordinate - the app delivers content overlaid on the real world that you can see by looking through your phone. You can then view or retrieve coupons, messages, commercials, logos and videos that support the sponsorship campaign."

Imagination Park derives its revenue from licensing fees paid by properties to employ the XenoHolographic platform. Te company takes the pain out of producing augmented reality activations by ofering a suite of readymade templates, images, objects and clue cards that can be easily incorporated into a campaign using a menudriven process. Te platform provides, for example, a template for an end-to-end treasure hunt campaign that allows users to retrieve and collect a list of objects in exchange for benefts or prizes. Customers can also approach Imagination Park or third-party developers to create custom content.

Imagination Park is targeting sports and live events as key markets that will allow sponsors to develop a one-toone relationship with audience members.

"Even smaller properties will fnd the platform afordable," says Silverrstieen. "Because the cost of developing an AR campaign is so reasonable, those properties can even engage smaller sponsors who may not have been able to participate before - automobile dealers, restaurants and retail stores. Tat includes activations at those places of business to drive people to the games and activations at the stadium to drive the fans back to those businesses."

Imagination Park's inaugural customers are two Indoor Football League teams, the Tucson Sugar Skulls and the Arizona Rattlers. Rattlers' fans are encouraged to point their phone at objects in Phoenix's Talking Stick Resort Arena or around the city to display promotions, videos, sponsored e-digital collectibles and information on the team. Te company worked with the Skulls to create a custom animation of the team's skeleton logo, decked out in team gear and dancing the Floss. Fans will be encouraged to fnd the dancing skeleton in locations around the city, share those fnds on social media and enter a naming contest for the Skulls' mascot.

"We capture all of the analytics and data of each consumer AR engagement," says Silverrstieen. "Tat includes email addresses, where they activated and when they activated. You can then use that information to deliver coupons that could be redeemed, for example, in exchange for discounts on stadium food or team merchandise. Tere's nothing like AR to deliver an engaging sponsored experience, starting inside a venue and then extending to the outside world long after the game has ended."