To celebrate the forthcoming release of Grrr!, the Rolling Stones' 50th anniversary greatest hits album, the band, ABKCO Music and Universal Music have teamed with augmented reality specialist Aurasma to create the world's biggest music AR campaign to date.

From today (20 September), fans can use their smartphones to watch the cover star of the collection, a mighty King Kong-style gorilla, visit famous landmarks around the globe. No less that 50 cities (one for each year the band has been around) and more than 3,000 locations are involved, including the Houses of Parliament in London, the Skytree in Tokyo, Sydney Opera House and, of course, the Empire State Building in New York.

Pocket-lint has been told that if, using free application uView, you point your iPhone or Android device at one of the tagged buildings, a virtual 3D animated gorilla will appear. The app will then give you the opportunity to pre-order Grrr!, which will be available from 12 November.

We have also been sent a tagged picture of the clock tower at the Houses of Parliament, so you can try out the application in the comfort of your own home.

A competition to win "fantastic prizes" - including two "very special prizes" - has also opened today. Fans are encouraged to take pictures of the Gorilla animations in action around the world and share them via Twitter, including the hashtag #GRRR!, or send them to grrr@rollingstones.com via email. They will be posted on to an interactive photo wall on the band's official website and the top 50 will walk away with the swag.

"The album reveal created a real buzz on social media," said Deborah Hyacinth, vice-president of digital marketing at Universal Music Group. "The 50 cities stage adds another level of interaction to this global campaign, giving fans that little bit extra to mark such a fantastic lifetime achievement. This pioneering use of mobile technology extends The Rolling Stones’ reputation for innovation and imagination."

You can get the uView application for iOS and Android for free on their respective ape stores... Geddit? Ape. Gorilla. Eh? Oh, please yourselves.

Let us know if you've managed to get the gorilla to appear on a landmark near you...