New Augmented Reality ad campaign tips you a free Coke

German restaurant chain Sausalitos has launched a rather clever Augmented Reality campaign.

The latest issue of the chain’s magazine carries an ad for Coke Zero that, when viewed via a mobile phone running the Junaio AR browser app, comes to life with animated elements and offers the user a discount offer.

This certainly isn’t the first time that Augmented Reality has been used in magazines. Esquire and German magazine Sueddeutsche Zeitung are among those to have incoroprated AR in the past, and we’ve even seen AR print ads before, but this the first time we’re aware of them being used with a “digital coupon” element. In this case, users will get a free Coke Zero.

Augemented Reality, the process of using your mobile phone’s camera or computer’s webcam as browser for virtual content overlaid on real life, has become something of a hot concept over the past couple of years although it’s yet to go truly mainstream. As fun as it might be to see a magazine ad come to life or a giant Pacman cross your path, the idea of holding your phone in front of your face in public might well put many potential users off.