The augmented reality (AR) means overlaying virtual objects over real settings. For instance, you can use one of the applications on your iPhone and see through the phone screen both real objects, captured by the camera, as well virtual ones.
As many experts believe, augmented reality will help advertisers communicate their message visually and without the need to describe their ideas in words. This can be a huge benefit to customers as it will make their life much easier when shopping for “visual” products, such as clothing or furniture.
In addition to augmented reality, we use the such terms as virtual reality and digital reality. By “virtual reality” we mean the immersive experience when people wear goggles and gloves. They feel as if they exist in a virtual reality. The digital reality means an umbrella term that includes all types non-real realities.
For the virtual reality to be created, systems need to consume significant computing power, users have to wear goggles and gloves. In addition, they cannot move around in the real world as they don’t see their surroundings.
Augmented reality is much less resource-intensive and even today you can use mobile apps to create augmented reality yourself. There is no doubt that this technology will be beneficial to all fields, such as science, medicine, education and arts with advertising standing to obtain a new powerful tool for attracting new customers.
Let’s look at the examples for bringing augmented reality to use in advertising.
Virtual pointers on real map
Today, almost everybody owns a smartphone. Apps that collect information and overlay it on the real map which will help users find places they need.
In addition, tourists will find it fascinating to learn more about places of interest by just looking at the screens of their smartphones. It’s quite possible that many tour guides and yellow pages will be converted into augmented reality guides, opening advertisers a great way to connect users and businesses.
Virtual fitting rooms
Clothing brands will certainly benefit from using augmented reality functionality in order to help buyers fit clothes without actually trying them on. This saves time and grows sales.
Nike has created a special stand, where customers were able to place sneakers and see the machine change the colors based on the settings, specified on the screen. This creative use of both augmented reality and lasers has helped users choose just the color that they want or create their own.
In another case study, Timberland installed a special screen in the store, which showed how clothes would look like on the person before she bought it. Such screens would surely drive more traffic to the store, while also increasing conversion to real sales since they make the fitting much simpler and faster.
Although installing such equipment can result in additional upfront costs, it’s conceivable to expect that standardization will bring down costs and enable mass-scale implementation.
Interior design
Augmented reality is a great solution for interior design and planning. It can be quite hard to visualize how all equipment will fit together and what ambience the owner will achieve.
Thanks to AR, users can just drag and drop appliances and other elements of interior in the app, saving time and costs from making wrong choices.
IKEA has created the augmented reality interior app, so that users can understand how all pieces fit together.
One of the amazing things about the system is that you can shrink yourself to a child’s size, so that you can inspect the room for any safety issues. In this way, AR app exceeds the scope of servicing that customers might obtain from a physical visit to a company’s store.
QR codes in stores
We also expect that many stores and brands will enable users to scan QR codes in order see 3D pictures of products and see additional information on the screen.
This is a great boon for those products that are stored in packaging or are too bulky to be conveniently present in the showroom. Visitors will have a much easier time orienting around the products without the need to ask various questions from sales assistants.
In the future, augmented reality might start to be used everywhere, bringing a new level of awareness and opening doors to more effective advertising. Advertisers will be able to pitch their products exactly at the time when they are needed most. Instead of iPhones and tablets, users might wear glasses with embedded scanners.
Those companies that invest in implementing early iterations of AR-powered solutions will stand to win from the first-mover advantage, drawing attention of buyers and growing revenues.
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