As an official sponsor of the U.S. Olympic Committee, BP recently released an innovative new augmented reality campaign that gives consumers a chance to face-to-face with some of the world's best athletes. BP teamed up with nine U.S. athletes to develop an interactive trading card series that will be included in the December 19th issue of BusinessWeek and featured on BP's website.

Consumers who download the trading cards can hold them up to their computer screen or a mobile phone camera and see them come to life as the athletes digitally appear in front of the user with exclusive training tips and information about themselves and their sports.

U.S. Olympic and Paraylmpic athletes featured in the exclusive trading card series include:

Lolo Jones - Track & Field, 100m Hurdler
Tatyana McFadden - Paralympic Cycling, Wheelchair
Sanya Richards-Ross - Track & Field, 400m Sprinter
Bryan Clay - Track & Field, Decathlon
Rudy Garcia-Tolson - Paralympic Swimming, 100m and 200m Swimmer
Jonathan Horton - Gymnastics
Jerome Singleton - Paralympic Track & Field, 100m and 200m Sprinter
Rebecca Soni - Swimming, 100m and 200m Breaststroke
Matt Stutzman - Paralympic Archery

Check out BP's augmented reality trading card series here and learn more about their commitment to Team USA on their official Facebook page.

Over the past few years, there has been a lot of excitement generated around the emergence of augmented reality and the opportunities marketers have to leverage it as an engagement tool. Augmented reality has become noticeably more mainstream, with a number of major brands experimenting with the technology to better understand how it can be used to drive engagement, education, and sales.

As sports marketers, it's important to at least have a simple grasp of the technology, how it's being incorporated, and what opportunities exist in the sports space.

Sports properties, brands, and individual athletes can look to engage fans via augmented reality in several different settings, including stadiums (scoreboard, concourse kiosks/displays, suites, mobile street teams), mobile locations (laptops, iPads, mobile phones), and at home (computers, television screens/video game portals with Internet access, etc.).

The following examples detail how brands, sports properties, and individual athletes can bring a static messaging gameday piece (piece of paper, product label, flyer, billboard, product packaging, ticket, fan loyalty card, parking pass) to life for fans in new ways via augmented reality. As the industry begins to tap into augmented reality, these examples will become more constructive, impactful, and engaging...

Footwear / Apparel (adidas, Nike)