Welsh rugby club, Scarlets Rugby, have teamed up with augmented reality innovators Blippar to launch a new interactive flyer in a bid to get a sales boost of 2014/15 season tickets .

Blippar is the leading mobile image-recognition platform for publishers, brands and advertisers and brings all types of print products to life. Aside from Scarlets Rugby they have worked with Pepsi, TIME Inc, Unilever, Nestle, P&G, Jaguar and many others. So the club’s in good company!

The ‘Invest. Inspire. Ignite.’ flyer launched today gives the reader a through-the-looking-glass view of Scarlets matchday including a walk through the home dressing room. With the help of Blippar, the Scarlets bring the static, physical world to life enhancing supporters’ Parc y Scarlets matchday experience wherever they are.

“As a leading sports club and facilities venue we have already showed our ambition to become a showcase for energy efficiency within stadia environments shortlisted as one of six finalists across the globe in Stadium Business Summit Awards. Today’s release of our interactive flyer shows what ambition we have to make strides in other areas of the business.

Scarlets is a name that resonates across the rugby world and we continue to strive to be the best. We are excited by the release of our interactive flyer and hope that our supporters will welcome this interactive communication tool. This is merely a taste of what’s to come!” – Scarlets General Manager, Jon Daniels

It’s an interesting move, a first for a UK rugby club. We’ve seen glimpses of the use of AR in sport before through the Aurasma‘s sponsorship of Tottenham Hotspur. When first announced the new kit launch campaign had AR integrated into it and proved a hit with fans and the industry. And this was back in 2011! But we’ve not seen any major take up, missing out on the possibilities that the use of AR provides. To many it may be seen as cost prohibitive?

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It will be interesting to see both the pick up from trade (and normal) press and, more importantly, the fans. The final measure will be season ticket sales for the 2014-15 season, then it will be seen if it lasts more than the one summer promo.

Love to hear your thoughts below…