WWF: Wildlife’s Fate is in your Hands

Kind of surprised this one I missed entirely on launch. Augmented reality (ie. virtual layers over views of the real world) application where what a virtual bear gets bumped around your surrounding environment for WWF China’s Biodiversity Protection Programme (dead link). A bit gimmicky, but a very interesting experiment (much like augmented reality games and near-future social network games scenarios).

Developed by Bartle Bogle Hegarty China and Qdero.

Anyone tried it out and care to comment? I use an iPhone and the app seems to run mostly on specific models of Nokia, Samsung and LG phones (list on campaign page link above). Would be interested in the experience for users since one of the problems I find with these things is that they’re more about what the organization wants than what the people expected to download, use and “viralize: it want (in general, most organizations still seem to be struggling badly with mobile strategy as anything other than spamming or questionable applications).

For some reason, I could see this idea being much more effective for an environmental organization somehow, along with a take a shot and upload it, kind of campaign… Other ideas ? Or, even for my own, something incongruous like a torturer or similarly something disturbing being overlaid on your local environment and shots uploaded again.