Experience, brand and engineering company Dare is putting a twist on the traditional Christmas this year with the launch of its interactive web app, SlayBell.

Visitors to thisisxmas.com are encouraged to group together with friends and colleagues to form a handbell choir, using nothing but their phones. The experience ‘transforms’ your phone into a handbell by reacting to movement. Each person can assign themselves a different musical note, so choirs can be formed instantly.

You can play anything you like – ever fancied hearing a festive version of Word Up? – but instructions for Good King Wenceslas and Jingle Bells are provided for groups of 5 or 8 people.

Dare has already posted a music video of themselves performing Good King Wenceslas on social media, and is inviting others to do the same using the hashtag #slaybell.

Michael Olaye, CEO at Dare, says: “Christmas should be all about coming together – what better way to do that than with a handy musical web app in the office, at home or down the pub with family and friends? We’ve certainly had a lot of fun making this, and we hope others can enjoy it too. Maybe we’ll see even better attempts by other people using it!”

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Experience, design and engineering company Dare has launched an interactive charity web app: This is Scare. It aims to raise awareness and prompt action for people to adopt black cats, who have a hard time being re-homed – particularly around Halloween.

The site, which mimics a well-known dating app, urges users to swipe left or right through a series of cats’ profiles. When they swipe on Scare, the sole black cat, users will enter a chat with the witty cat-bot.

Scare highlights the difficulties black cats face when looking for new homes, before prompting a match to make a donation and encourage users to think about adopting a cat themselves.

On average, according to RSPCA data, it takes 30.5% longer to rehome a black cat than a tabby cat, and 70% of the RSPCA’s cats in care are either black or black and white.

Michael Olaye, CEO at Dare, says: “Who doesn’t love cats? It’s a shame to see so many black cats left behind while others get rehomed easily. It’s sad to think people are more likely to choose a tabby cat over a black cat just because of old superstitions, or because they’re not Instagram friendly.

“At Dare, we work with new technologies and create digital experiences every day, so we thought we’d use our skills for a good cause this Halloween. We want to raise awareness, dispel the myths surrounding black cats, and hopefully drive a few donations to animal shelters.

“With ‘This is Scare’, we’re looking to engage users with familiar dating app technology and at the same time, encourage them to change a cat’s life this Halloween.”

All donations will be split equally between Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, Cats Protection and Blue Cross. You can donate here.

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In a cruise industry first, P&O Cruises has launched an augmented reality campaign to promote its latest new ship, Iona, and bring to life its onboard experiences in interactive 3D.

The initial 3D renders for Iona were produced by content agency Sunday from which the augmented reality experiences were crafted by creative agency Founded. With technology delivered by  augmented reality pioneer, Blippar, this new campaign has been created to allow travel agents and consumers to experience Iona 18 months prior to the completion of the ship.

Almost 300,000 pieces of direct mail have been sent to travel agents and past guests with details of how to download the Blippar app, which will provide them with the ability to experience Iona in augmented reality. Once the Blippar app is opened and a phone is held over the image of Iona, the ship will burst into life and may be explored from bow to stern. Included in the AR are images of the SkyDome, the vast glass domed entertainment and relaxation area on the top deck, cabins and the Grand Atrium. As more Iona images and designs become available, new augmented reality experiences will be added. Anyone ‘blipping’ the ship before November 1 will have a chance to win a one-week cruise on Iona.

Christopher Edgington, P&O Cruises VP Marketing, said: “Iona’s scale and breadth of experiences will offer holidays like never before and this demands marketing like never before. With Iona going on sale two years before its launch, we realised that we needed to create new and innovative ways to reach and engage both existing and potential guests. The obvious solution to this was our first ever augmented reality campaign.”

Edgington continued: “A week after launch we have beaten our targets for number of blips and dwell time which proves that interactive marketing and the ability to get a much more intimate and inspiring view of the ship is a hit with our guests.”

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