The Royal British Legion has become the latest charity to use its real-world adverts to direct people to digital content, in an attempt to increase donations, as part its annual Poppy Appeal.

When people scan images of the RBL’s poppy that appear on its campaign posters, newspaper mastheads and anywhere else the poppy appears, using the Blippar mobile phone app, they will unlock a range of additional content.

This includes a campaign video, stories behind the posters and an image gallery from this year’s campaign, which features modern day people recreating photos from the past, and encourages people to engage with the campaign on social media. It also directs people its online donation page.

Gary Ryan, director of marketing and communications, said: “It’s an exciting way of bringing the page to life, enabling us to talk to more people about our vital work in helping the armed forces community.”

Blippar is available for Apple, Android and Microsoft devices and has 50 million users worldwide.

Last year RBL introduced its My Poppy app, developed by Pocket App, which was downloaded 30,000 times and raised £60,000 for the appeal and the app has returned for 2015.

Earlier this year Oxfam starting using the Traces app to encourage people visiting its charity shops to engage online. And Cancer Research UK has trialled using interactive screens to give people the opportunity to donate using near-field communication technology.