• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 14, 2009

Beam me up, Scotty. Verizon Wireless has launched a campaign themed on Paramount Pictures's newly released "Star Trek" movie to promote the Nokia Intrigue 7205 phone and V-CAST. Marketing efforts tap augmented reality technology from Total Immersion to get Trekkies closer to the action.

The augmented reality app, found at joinstarfleetacademy.com/discover, aims to drive "Star Trek" fans to the Web site and blend physical with digital worlds. Fans download an app from the site, print out a jpg file and hold it up to a Web camera to see on the computer screen a teleport effect that turns into a Nokia Intrigue 7205. The phone opens and closes before it disappears.

"I'm holding this piece of paper that projects a triangle on the screen in front me that starts to spin in my hand as I move," said Shawn Moore, vice president, group creative director, Moxie Interactive, Atlanta, Ga., who manages the brand for Verizon Wireless. "By spinning the triangle, I can look at different content on each side."

The "seeding strategy" that should drive traffic to the augmented reality feature gets underway today. The "organic" effort consists mainly of digital grassroots outreach to bloggers, forum and message board administrators and other online influencers that have shown an interest in either the Star Trek movie or augmented reality technology.

Three months in the making, the campaign integrates augmented reality, email, banner and rich media ads. Site visitors sign up to become a cadet in the Star Fleet Academy and partake in four levels of Starfleet Training games based around Captain Kirk's Kobayashi Maru training exercise to develop the skills necessary to face the powerful Romulans.

Once fans have signed up for the academy, Cadets opt in to receive emails to stay connected to the Academy and the movie.

The initiated can keep fellow cadets in the know about their Starfleet Training status through Facebook Connect. The micro-site integrates ideas and story lines from other Star Trek Web destinations, such as Paramount Pictures' Star Trek site and Nokia, to create a multipoint interconnected online universe.

Paramount's "Star Trek" movie pulled in $79.2 million from late Thursday night through Sunday on opening weekend in theaters.

Moore says the augmented reality technology is too new to forecast numbers for site visitors, pass-along or engagement. But based on the success of similar campaigns, along with "Star Trek" screening numbers, Moore suspects the "buzz" will become valuable enough that other clients will want to "play" with the technology, too.