Rolling Stones & The Grrr! Gorilla

The Rolling Stones announce a worldwide 50-city campaign for the band’s upcoming box set Grrr! featuring a mobile app that functions like secret decoder devices of old. But while the band pushes product, there’s still no mention of any live dates.

Today’s announcement is all about the band’s free uView app that gives your mobile device the ability to bring 3D artwork to life whenever you point your phone or tablet at enabled content. Pull up RollingStones.com, point your device at the gorilla and you’ll see the animal’s eyes blink while a snippet of “Start Me Up” plays. Pointing the device at another part of the page tagged as containing 3D augmented reality brings up a montage of Stones moments from the band’s 50-year career.

Presented by the band along with ABKCO Music, Universal Music and Aurasma, the Grrr! 3D Augmented Reality promotion is guerrilla marketing on a major scale. The plan calls for tagging famous landmarks in 50 cities, such as London’s Big Ben and the Empire State Building in New York City.

Along with seeing exclusive content via the uView app, you’ll also have the opportunity to pre-order Grrr! before the album comes out Nov. 13.

There’s also a contest with the Stones inviting fans to take photos of the Gorilla animations and share them via Twitter @RollingStones (include #GRRR! in the tweet) or email your pics to [email protected]. The photos will be posted on an interactive fan wall at RollingStones.com/grrr-home. The top 50 entries will be selected to win prizes including “two very special prizes to be revealed.”

Photo: Rankin

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts outside London’s Marquee Club.

While today’s announcement from the band’s publicity machine pushes the uView app as well as the Stones’ Grrr! album, there’s still no mention of any live dates. Latest rumors have the band performing two shows at the London O2 in November and two in November or December at Brooklyn’s new Barclays Center.