Catch 'butterflies' to earn rewards

What say you on the issue below?

NEAT: MAHB's commercial service general manager Faizah Khairuddin showing off the "butterfly" that she just caught which carries a free coffee coupon.

FANCY winning discount vouchers and other giveaways at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT)? All you have to do is catch some "butterflies" - virtual ones to be exact - and your butterfly net is either an Apple iPhone (3GS or 4 only) or iPad.

Malaysia Airport Holdings Bhd (MAHB), which manages the country's 39 airports, recently launched an iOS application called iButterfly which utilises the Apple devices' augmented reality, motion sensor and GPS capabilities. The app was developed by Tokyo-based Dentsu Digital Asia.

After installing the app, users can look at the built-in Map feature to locate a butterfly habitat. Once found, they simply have swing their device like a butterfly net to catch the flying insect.

Any butterfly caught will be added into the app's Collection Book and each butterfly contains a variety of coupons, freebies and other content, which can be redeemed immediately, or saved for some other time depending on the expiry dates.

Users can also give away or exchange the butterflies in their collection with their friends.

To date, MAHB has released four butterflies in these two airports and plans are underway to add more butterflies as well as expand the service to its other airports nationwide, said Faizah Khairuddin, the company's general manager of commercial services.

The interactive service was introduced in a bid to promote its airports as exciting shopping destinations in the country, Faizah said.