Wise Foods, the makers of Cheez Doodles is attempting to stir up some competition for Frito-Lay character Chester Cheetah through the use of a more interactive spin on the digital technology of augmented reality with its own cartoon mascots.

Wise is rolling out the campaign in support of Cheez Dudes, a trio of rock band mascots that the snack brand introduced in August as the new face of the cheesy treat. The product which has generally marketed to a younger market will now try to engage the teen demographic as well.

The augmented reality game called Rock the Cheez invites participants to create their own rock video by arranging printouts in front of their computer’s web cam. The company was interested in incorporating the new favourite tech tool while still developing something that was interactive and required some imagination.

“Having augmented reality for the sake of augmented reality is still just a fancy way of pushing out a message,” said D.J. Edgerton, CEO of Zemonga, the digital shop that created the campaign. “We’re challenging kids to be creative with the technology, create something and share it.”

Each of the videos submitted to the Rock the Cheez game will be entered into a competition with the winning entry being awarded $1000 and its creator receiving a set of instruments.

Wise is also using this opportunity to use the Cheez Doodles site along with social networks such as Facebook to flesh out each mascot character. “We want to allow our consumers to identify with an individual” mascot, said Kevin Foltz, brand manager at Wise Foods. “Each one is unique, but they all play together in the same band.”