Benetton is revisiting augmented reality (AR) technology for its next social media and print campaign. The campaign, called “It’s My Time,” it is is a global casting competition to discover what the fashion brand calls the “new faces of the 21st century.”

“It’s My Time” takes Benetton’s use of AR to another level; it previously tested the online-offline technology with the November edition of its Colors magazine. Distributed in-store, via mail, and online, the magazine is known for controversial images that have only a little bit to do with sweaters and a lot to do with the offbeat lifestyle of its customers.

Where the Colors use of AR added only to what was in the publication, It’s My Time will provide a blend of media, tools, platforms and technology – publishing, new web options, video, social networks — into what the company calls a  “boundless virtual plaza.” The company will engage with the styles, personalities, languages and creativity of the world’s young people to compile an “unprecedented, exclusive sociological sampling of their inspirations and aspirations and their interest in the future,” according to spokesperson Anissa Nouhi.

The campaign starts Monday Feb. 8 with a worldwide periodical-press campaign utilizing AR. Benetton’s older teen and young adult demographic will be invited to attend a global casting session and illustrate their style and personality – the things that make them unique – through videos and photographs, which can be uploaded at will and free of charge at Benetton’s website and  YouTube page. Facebook and Twitter pages have been created to follow the competition.

“The new It’s My Time campaign offers young people around the world a means of sharing their opinions, as well as a “place” to be noticed and a dream to aspire to,” says Nouhi. “Through the open culture of social media, the blogosphere and citizen journalism, it promotes a radical freedom, enabling them to make the leap from objects to subjects.”

To stimulate the imagination, innovative and hi-tech tools will be used in advertising for the campaign, enhanced with interactive and augmented reality. This ground-breaking technique, recently used in Colors 76-Teenagers, intensifies the readers’ experience by immersing them in a world that blends the real with the virtual.

Nouhi said the campaign is an “open invitation” for Benetton fans to share their tastes and find like-minded friends. It’s a way for them to “to express themselves as individuals, to assert themselves and their true personalities, away from the usual stereotypes,” she added.

The casting sessions will run until March 16 and will be judged by the web community. The 100 finalists will then be evaluated by a specially-formed jury of experts, who will choose twenty finalists to fly to New York and feature in United Colors of Benetton’s advertising campaign for autumn-winter 2010/2011, under the lens and creative guidance of British photographer Josh Olins.

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