Get On Target
- Brand
- Desjardins
- Year
- 2013
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Finance
- Mechanic
- Simulation & Strategy
- Platform
- AR & VR
- Agency
- Merchlar
Objective
Desjardins Insurance's collective retirement savings team was up against a communication problem: for young plan members, retirement reads as an abstraction three decades away, and standard print mailers weren't cutting through. The brand bet that the more playful, unexpected touchpoints a member encountered, the more likely they were to engage with — and actually contribute to — their plan, so it built an AR game to open the door to its "On Target Retirement" planning tool.
Solution
There's no link or app store search — the player starts with a printed marker on a Desjardins promo piece. They open the Desjardins AR app, aim the camera at that image as if taking a photo, and a 3D scene lifts off the flat print and hovers above the table in front of them. From there they play by moving the phone or tablet around the marker itself, circling and tilting the device while the scene stays locked in place over the paper. The objective is to land shots on target, a direct echo of the "On Target Retirement" tool the campaign is built to promote, and finishing the round points the player toward that retirement calculator to see where they actually stand.
- 1
The game begins with a printed marker — a Desjardins image printed on promotional material such as T-shirts, postcards, swag, posters, or the pages of a publication.
- 2
The player installs the Desjardins AR app from the Apple App Store on an iPhone or iPad and opens it; the app activates the camera immediately.
- 3
Pointing the camera at the printed marker, the player triggers recognition and a 3D scene unfolds over the real surface where the image sits.
- 4
The player holds the device over the marker and moves it around the image to play; the 3D scene stays anchored to the trigger and sits in front of the player as a physical game field, with the camera serving as both viewpoint and control.
