News: Zappar Pitches Baseball AR Mini-Game for Wise Snacks

Wise Snacks wants baseball fans to reach for potato chips instead of peanuts and Cracker Jacks, and it's calling augmented reality out of the bullpen to close the deal.

The snack maker has partnered with two Major League Baseball teams, the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets, to bring a lineup of baseball-themed chips to their respective home markets.

The packaging of these synergistic snacks, designed by Perspective Branding, include codes that can be scanned by the Zappar app for iOS or Android to access a baseball mini-game. After a transition animation, users will see an animated pitcher overlaid on their camera view.

The pitcher continues to toss baseballs in the direction of the player, who can "hit" the balls by touching them at the precise moment. Players earn points for each ball hit, with the round ending after they miss three times.

Once the game is over, participants can enter their name and score on the global leaderboard. They can also take a picture with the 3D pitcher model, who can be resized and positioned in the frame, and their score superimposed. As expected, the picture can be saved to the user's device and shared on the usual social media outlets or other applications.

According to a Zappar spokesman, Wise asked for an AR experience with mechanics similar to the Zappar Tennis game. While the game is accessible through the team-branded snacks, the in-game player is presented in Wise's brand colors.

It's nothing revolutionary, but, the animations are smooth and the tracking is steady. As Apple's ARKit debuts with iOS 11 this fall, we can expect marketing departments to come up with more experiences like this one.

So, if you're a fan of time-wasters (like I am), it's worth a couple of innings. Or if you're a kid missing out on having a catch with dad, then this could solve your external crisis and save you hours of therapy down the road.

Scan the image below and give it a try. If you are so inclined, post your score in the comments section.

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