Augmenting Creativity: How augmented reality enhances engagement?
Human beings have been telling stories long before recorded history. Stories engage us, distract us and they certainly entertain us. From wedge shaped writing on clay tablets to augmenting reality with our tablets, as we know today, technology has been evolving. The methods, forms and platforms of storytelling have been changing but the desire to tell and hear a good tale well told has remained unchanged. ‘Narrative Transportation Theory’, as psychologists refer it as, is an experience of being immersed and “forgetting the conscious process of watching, reading or listening”. It’s like entering a different world evoked by the narrative because of our empathy for the characters and the imagination of the plot. It’s interesting to see how storytelling has adapted as per the modern, technological changes. As technology is undergoing a tectonic shift, our focus has also moved from ‘media to content and then from content to content experiences’ (AR/VR Journey: Augmented & Virtual Reality Magazine, 2018). The technologies which have shifted our gaze from screens to the real or simulated world around us are Virtual reality and Augmented Reality. The article explores the use of augmented reality techniques to enhance engagement.
According to Apple chief executive, Tim Cook, Augmented Reality will be as important as “eating three meals a day” (Leswing, 2016). There has been a significant rise of virtual try-on in beauty industry. In automotive sector, augmented reality is used to immerse in the experience of driving a car before purchasing. Even tech giants like Apple and Google are investing in AR making it accessible to smartphone users. With digital marketing on rise, many brands are experimenting with the AR technology to magnify the impact. The question we need to ask is if AR enhances engagement through immersion. Let’s understand the meaning of these two terms- ‘Augmented Reality’ and ‘Immersion’.
AR is the practice of blending computer-generated images into real-world settings. In other words, AR adds to the reality and that differentiates it from Virtual Reality, which is about being immersed in computer-generated environments. AR is now made easily available on smartphones and tablets, thus making it more accessible to people.
Immersion, according to Oxford dictionary, is deep mental involvement in something. Senior Research Scientist in the Center for Educational Computing Initiatives at MIT, Janet H. Murray, describes immersion as “the sensation of being surrounded by a completely other reality… that takes over all our attention, our whole perceptual apparatus” (Janet Murray, 2001, p.98).
In AR, a number of factors result in immersion like the technique brings the users in another space making them a part of the story. In other words, AR technology breaks the fourth wall and pulls the audience in the story thus giving them control in the story. Before we delve deeper into the realm of augmented reality, let’s look at the historical context behind interactive storytelling.
1987 saw the initial phase of interactive system by Bill Atkinson called as HyperCard. With this, a new literature of storytelling came into being as one could move from one ‘virtual card’ to another just by clicking. With the advent of Internet, the concept got enhanced into hyperlinks. Klynt is a platform for editing and publishing interactive stories. The application looks different but employs similar logic of ‘click and go’. In 1997, filmmaker Chris Marker made an analogy between human brains and CD-ROM in his documentary called Immemory, which is a multi media memoir. Glorianna Davenport, co-founder of MIT media lab, saw a huge database of stories and map of possibilities in history books. In parallel world, the sellable quality of memories also saw the beginning of interactive games with SimCity. Florian Thalhofer, a Berlin-based media artist and documentary filmmaker, invented software called Korsakow for non-linear and interactive narrations. In 2002, he did a Love Story project, which allowed the users to surf through an archive of personal stories. In an interview with Dr. Sandra Gaudenzi, Creative Director of i-Docs.org, he explains the layer of expansion in the project that would otherwise seem to use the logic of hyperlinks. The project gives its users the option based on his/her choice of first option, thus making it a never-ending project. Gaza-Sderot is another interactive project, showing lives of people on both the sides of the border (Palestine and Israel). According to Dr. Gaudenzi, the interface of the project generates powerful emotional impact (Gaudenzi, 2014). A range of interactive factual like Snowfall (NewYork Times) and Firestorm (The Guardian) were produced in 2012 and 2013 respectively. VR project like Hunger in LA, in 2012, by Nonny de la Peña, named “the Godmother of virtual reality” (Helmore, 2015), made a mark in the journey of interactive factual. It generates empathy among the participants by creating a sense of presence by using original audio recorded outside a food bank in LA, where a man collapses into a diabetic coma while waiting for food. Meanwhile the game world was also embracing the evolution of technology as Dontnod Entertainment launched Life is Strange, an episodic graphic adventure video game. The arrival of the smartphone in 2007 encouraged experimentation; typically focused on gaming, culminating in the global phenomenon that was Pokémon Go in 2016, which is an augmented reality mobile game. It played a critical role in training users that the camera can do more than capture images, it can also be interactive. On the other hand, interactive factual tapped into AR with a project called The Enemy. In the parallel world, marketing saw an increase in the use of AR technologies to win customers and prospects.
Augmented Reality offers the opportunity to enhance the digital storytelling by moving beyond the flat screen of the TV. It gives a sense of agency to the audience thus making them active participants as compared to passive recipients of the story. Such active engagement elicits emotional connection. Disney developed a ‘mediated reality’ experience for out of home digital advertisement. It allowed the audience to choose a scene from the game and virtually interact with their favourite Disney character. The main goal is to add information to the perception of reality in a way that the users feel motivated and encouraged by this new kind of cause‐effect relationship. Another example is a unique augmented reality experience by Coca-Cola was created for Zurich Central Station that gave football fans the chance to play alongside Switzerland star Xherdan Shaqiri. On another occasion, competitor brand, Pepsi Max, received overwhelming response with their augmented reality experience transforming a bus shelter into a window that augmented unbelievable scenarios into the real world to convey the message of ‘Live For Now’. Such an immersive nature creates true added value for the customers. Engaging creative is great for environments with higher levels of dwell time, creating greater brand recall and changing consumer behaviours.
“These experiences have led augmented reality to yield results unprecedented in traditional marketing and advertising. The best campaigns can lead to dwell times of over 85 seconds, interaction rates of up to 20% and click-through rates to purchase of 33% numbers that dwarf anything across print, online or television advertising.” (Eskenazi, 2018)
Simlarly, IKEA addresses a real problem by incorporating AR into their marketing strategy to enhance their customer service. IKEA Place allows the users to visualize furniture in their space before making the purchase. This kind of feature not only increases customer engagements but also reduces returns and regrets. Dulux allows its customers to visualize the colour of the paint on the wall before buying. Such visualizations are more impactful in influencing the users’ decisions by adding significant value to the experience. Another major factor that makes AR a coveted platform for marketing is its ability to generate emotions and leave long lasting impressions. Augmented Reality enables brands to market the experience of the product to the person. Therefore, more and more retailers are tapping into AR experiences in-store and online to make the shopping experience more exciting (Roy, 2019).
The Enemy AR is one of the first interactive factual in Augmented Reality by a Belgian-Tunisian war correspondent and photojournalist, Karim Ben Khelifa. The project brings the users face to face with the combatants from opposing sides in Augmented Reality. This includes soldiers from Israel and Palestine, soldiers from Congo and opposing gang members from El Salvador. The project is an attempt to make the audience understand war. Khelifa intended to combine the story with an experience to “tell the story of the combatants like never before” (TechRistic.com, 2018). The Enemy places us with the combatants or in the case of Augmented Reality, the combatants are placed with us in our environment, thus adding layers to one’s experience. This kind of placement establishes a better sense of connection resulting in more engagement. One of the main reasons of this project being a success in AR is because the experience takes place in users’ own space, which is vital in making the user feel comfortable in learning about an intense topic like war. Such kind of immersion results in more engagement.
Another question that we need to ask is how does augmented reality increase our emotional quotient. AR has the ability to place the audience/consumer at the center of the experience. This kind of physical presence leads to motivation and makes us empathize with the subject (Rose, M, 2018). AR results in an enhanced experience by letting the auidence/customers visualise and interact with products and brands. Such engagement improves sales and builds shopper loyalty.
“In our neuroscience experiment we found that the part of the brain responsible for memory encoding sees almost three times (2.9) the level of activity when experiencing the AR version of an activity compared to the non-AR version. This indicates that AR can be a particularly powerful way to deliver information that is subsequently retained.” (mindshareworld.com, 2018)
Pokémon Go failed after the initial week, as there were very few new features. This is learning for AR marketers. In order to make AR more impactful and lure people, it has to do more than placing virtual characters in real world. Most valuable brand engagement is driven by emotion. Brands come alive when the audience interact deeply and become more involved. AR can leave a lasting brand memory with its ability to increase engagement, emotional intensity and attention by adding layers of content and information. Implementing AR technologies, brands and retailers can open a whole new scope of enhanced shopping experience by tapping into engagement experiences and customer services.
Reference
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https://immerse.news/not-a-film-and-not-an-empathy-machine-48b63b0eda93#.sst2sn6ax
Helmore, E. (2015). ‘Godmother of VR’ sees journalism as the future of virtual reality. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/mar/11/godmother-vr-news-reporting-virtual-reality [Accessed 8 Apr. 2019].
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