Who: Quebecor and Cirque du Soleil.

What: An augmented reality campaign for Cirque’s show “Alegría.”

When & Where: The campaign was built around ads in the Saturday, March 16 editions of Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, as well as an AR segment featuring Quebecor technology reporter Mathieu Royon on the Quebec morning show Salut Bonjour. Similar ads were also featured in the papers’ “En 5” section.

How: Readers who scanned the ad using the J5 app on tablet or smartphone were given a preview of Alegría that included a 3D animation of one of the show’s most prominent characters, Monsieur Fleur, as well as a recording of the show’s famous theme song. The animation also directed them to a site where they could purchase tickets for the show.

The results are in: According to Quebecor, the three augmented reality pages garnered nearly 300,000 scans, with users spending an average of 4.5 minutes engaging with the content. Meanwhile, a preliminary campaign directing people to download the J5 app led to a 30% increase in traffic versus the three prior Saturdays leading up to the campaign. It was the busiest day for the app since it launched.

And we quote: “Augmented reality breathes new life into media placements, allowing readers to enjoy an experience.” —Sébastien Royer, digital media manager at Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group.