FEATURE: Facing a new augmented reality

In a highlight from our Q4 magazine issue, we take a look at how companies including Crayola and MGA are turning to AR to reach new demos and engage fans more effectively.
October 18, 2024

A bunch of kids head into a haunted mansion on a mission to hunt monsters. They find the tools they need to trap the killer clown and catch the giant spider. Their plan is working perfectly, and not a single one has lost their soul…but then the monsters flip the script and start showing up in the kids’ homes!

You might be thinking that this sounds like a pitch for a spooky new tween TV series, but you’d be wrong. It’s an experience that MGA Entertainment has created with its board game Finders Creepers, thanks to the evolving power of augmented reality (AR).

“AR allows us to bring the game to life in ways that were previously unimaginable, creating an experience that is not only fun, but also highly social and interactive,” says MGA’s chief marketing officer Josh Hackbarth. “More and more often, kids are looking for experiences that blend the physical and digital worlds, and AR offers that bridge.”

That’s exactly what happens in Finders Creepers: Kids ages eight to 13 role-play as investigators from a paranormal detective agency who are searching for gear and capturing monsters. During the game, the monsters escape from the board, and players must then use the AR app to hunt them down in their own homes.

MGA’s Micro Games of America division launched the game in August in order to reach the 62% of American kids who have their own phones (according to July data from Statista) and engage them with play that goes well beyond the company’s roots in manufacturing physical toys.

Augmenting the board game biz

Finders Creepers starts out as a monster-hunting board game, but then shifts over to phones, making it look like the monsters are haunting the players’ own homes.

In its most basic sense, augmented reality is technology that superimposes content—often videos and audio recordings—onto the real world through the cameras, speakers and video screens embedded in smartphones and tablets.

Finders Creepers is MGA’s first title in what will eventually be a whole line of App-Vanced board games that employ AR to make games easier to play and more engaging, says Hackbarth.

“We believe this line will bring younger video game fans into tabletop gaming. We’re already in development with first-class licensed properties and new game mechanics to take this line to the next level.”

A princess in your room

MGA isn’t alone in embracing AR to entice difficult-to-reach demos. Disney is also doing so with its new Portal to the Princesses experience, which also launched in August. In this story-based game, kids can go to a website on their phone and make it look like a Disney princess is in their room. After choosing one of four live-action characters, they can then play their way through a choose-your-own-adventure story, traveling across the ocean with Moana or helping Rapunzel paint a portrait, for example.

Disney released the free experience as part of a multi-year campaign called Create Your World, which offers a wide variety of new products and content specifically designed to tap into the popularity of the Mouse House’s royal characters. (In the US, Disney Princess is the most popular franchise among girls ages three to 11, according to research the company conducted last year.)

Disney created Portal to the Princesses to tap into this popularity and give kids a more interactive experience with the characters. The ultimate goal is motivating them to seek out the princesses in other content and products, or in real life at Disney theme parks.

Putting the AR in art

Crayola’s new drawing sets target artistically challenged kids with a phone-based AR solution that helps them create masterpieces.

AR isn’t new—San Francisco-based developer Niantic’s breakout title Pokémon GO was a huge success when it launched in 2016, reaching 232 million players that year. And its continued popularity drove US$566 million in revenue from in-app purchases in 2023, according to Statista.

Despite the buzz Pokémon GO brought to AR, few companies have been able to replicate its success. But they keep trying, seeing real value in the benefits the technology can deliver.

For Crayola, its investment in AR is less about creating a blockbuster app and more about building on the way kids play, increasing the time young artists spend being creative, and attracting consumers who aren’t currently picking up its products.

One of the trickiest groups for the crayon-maker to reach is those who are not artistically inclined. But AR is helping Crayola get over this hurdle, says EVP of marketing Victoria Lozano.

After testing AR for several years, some of the company’s latest efforts have been incorporated into two drawing kits that both launched in November 2023—the My Gallery Marker Set and the Mandala Mood Pencil Set. Developed and manufactured in partnership with Boston-based techco Cupixel, these sets are designed for kids ages eight and up. Users simply put their phone in a stand, and augmented reality shows them what to trace on their pad, making it foolproof to create great art.

“This is part of a broader strategy for Crayola to use technology to reach new demos and others who might not be engaged,” says Lozano. “With AR, we’re able to democratize the ability to create, and it also boosts kids’ confidence because the output is of such a high quality.”

The sets come with a 30-day free subscription to Cupixel’s same-name COPPA/GDPR-compliant art app, which features a gallery of drawings kids can trace, recorded instructional videos from experts, and a community for sharing finished masterpieces. Once the free subscription runs out, the cost is US$7.99 a month to keep using the app.

Crayola doesn’t share financial data, but its key performance indicators—including engagement, retention and financials—have all been solid for both products, says Brian Nemeckay, senior manager of Crayola Interactive. In fact, the AR sets have been so successful that the company plans to expand the line with additional SKUs.

The arts & crafts giant has also been experimenting with several other forms of AR, incorporating the tech into its Crayola Experience locations (where kids can see their drawings come to life) and the app for its Scribble Scrubbie brand (that lets kids color fish toys and then watch them swim around in the real world).

These e orts are aimed at building on existing play patterns and providing kids with a more robust experience than they can have at home, says Lozano.

Seeing their creations come to life can help kids develop confidence in their artistic skills, and Crayola is focused on challenging the perception that some people just aren’t creative or can’t draw. More broadly, the company’s Campaign for Creativity marketing push has been running since April and has already racked up 4.5 billion impressions, says Lozano.

Putting a pin in it

While Crayola is using AR to innovate in the arts & crafts category, Pinfinity sees this tech as the key to breathing new life into the collectible pins market.

Based in San Diego and London, the company makes AR-powered pins that play animation and music when viewed through the Pinfinity app, as well as linking to exclusive content, products, games and sites.

The pin market was hot in the ’80s and ’90s, when trading and collecting them was at a peak. But that popularity declined in the face of new trends and media formats, says Matthew Arevalo, Pinfinity’s co-founder and chief experience officer. While a base level of interest has endured, the market needed something to re-energize it.

“And that’s the power of combining pins with AR,” he says. “It brings a new dimension to the collectible experience, making it more relevant and exciting for today’s audience.”

Brand owners seem to agree with that assessment. Disney (Deadpool & Wolverine), The Jim Henson Company (Labyrinth) and Bethesda Softworks (Fallout) have all signed on as Pinfinity licensing partners, and as a result, the pin-maker has seen “significant growth” in its direct-to-consumer sales, says Arevalo.

Pinfinity is also working with Hasbro to produce Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons pins. And it’s currently in talks about adding more licenses, including Hasbro’s most popular kids brands, Arevalo adds.

“By integrating AR into traditional products like pins, brands can extend their reach to younger, tech-savvy consumers who might not have been as engaged with more conventional merchandise,” he says. “What excites me most about AR is its ability to create a multi-generational experience. Kids today are digital natives—they expect interactivity in everything they do.”

This story was originally published in Kidscreen‘s Q4 magazine issue. 

About The Author
News editor for Kidscreen. Ryan covers tech, talent and general kids entertainment news, with a passion for kids rap content and video games. Have a story that's of interest to Kidscreen readers? Contact Ryan at rtuchow@brunico.com

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