Diva Creative launches GeoStories AR storytelling app

UK agency Diva Creative has launched Geostories, an augmented reality (AR) storytelling app designed to offer users a new way to experience places with great stories at their heart.

GeoStories uses smartphone technology to create interactive guided experiences using GPS triggers. People experience dramas associated with locations, drawing on the lives of the people who lived there and points of interest. The initial prototype was based in Whitby, in Yorkshire, England, and drew on the visit to Whitby by Bram Stoker, author of the classic gothic novel Dracula, bringing the tale and its connections with the Yorkshire fishing town to life.

In addition to being a great storytelling tool, accessible via an app, the team recognised strong potential for the GeoStories concept and its future development. To seek support to progress the project, the company submitted an application to the South Yorkshire Digital Innovation Grant scheme to secure the funds needed to secure a consultant specialising in emerging technologies to develop the project.

The GeoStories app now is available on App Store and Google Play and features a new story – Chronicles of the Bakewell Witches. The Diva Creative team is currently working on producing new stories as well as developing a story building platform with gamification and moving image elements.

“Storytelling is at the very heart of the way we communicate with others,” said Diva Creative Director, Amanda Pearce. “We recognised that combining emerging tech such as augmented reality with GPS and features such as 360 video offer new, exciting immersive ways of engaging and entertaining consumers.

“After nearly two years of research and development we are ready to bring the product to market, and the funds provided by the Digital Innovation Grant really supported us on our journey. We are now investment-ready and are in talks with a number of potential partners, with the potential for spin out.”

Launched in 2000, Diva Creative specialises in producing ethical campaigns, designed to bring about positive social change. The company works with organisations across the UK and counts the Department for Education, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Children’s Commissioner amongst its clients.

The Digital Innovation Grant scheme was launched in July 2021 and helps SME businesses across South Yorkshire to access match-funded grants to help them embrace new ways of working to improve productivity and growth and enter new markets.