Breaking News: Augmented Reality Convinces Consumers to Buy Real
Advancement in technology leads to advancement in digital marketing. So, it makes sense when brands are experimenting with novel ways to expand their reach, new ways to market, and adapt with new technology including virtual reality. But how truly effective is it and is it something all brands should be investing in?
Historically, snack brands like Doritos have a stake in the gaming community. Most of their target consumers are young men and women who although may not mainly identify themselves as “gamers” but do play video games. In order to maintain your presence in a video gaming community, you have to go where your consumers are.
Doritos are not strangers to testing the marketing waters with augmented and virtual reality or gaming. In 2017, during their launch of Doritos Roulette, Doritos launched an online campaign on Twitter and Periscope in an effort to promote engagement and brand awareness by introducing a game of roulette with their new product. Consumers would film videos or share their experience as they ate the new roulette chips and either were underwhelmed with a non-spicy chip or surprised when they tasted a very spicy chip. Cleverly, posting a video or engaging with the Twitter hashtag for the new roulette chip entered you into a roulette giveaway where you can earn a chance to win gaming consoles or wireless speakers — something Doritos’s main target demographic would be very interested in.
Further tapping into their main consumer base, Doritos officially became a brand partner of Twitch — a live stream gaming platform. Twitch reaches thousands of consumers every day between gaming influencers, video game athletes, and video gaming fans. Partnering with live streaming platforms like Twitch allows brands like Doritos access to a very large but also very niche demographic: gamers.
Doritos has also evolved their gaming giveaways in order to integrate augmented reality. For example, in 2020 Doritos launched an augmented reality game similar to the Pokèmon Go app. By downloading the app and enabling their location, users will embark on a scavenger hunt to find Playstation shapes in their local environment. By completing this quest, users will be entered in a content to win a Playstation 5 console. This is a great way for Doritos to engage their gaming consumer community by soliciting their participation to play a game in exchange for a chance to win a new gaming console. This is also an effective way to market to a community that already enjoys playing video games and earn some brand engagement.
However, Doritos doesn’t stop there. Recently, Doritos announced that they will be launching a new augmented reality campaign in which users can win a chance of winning live concert tickets. Through digital posters, users will be able to scan a QR code using their mobile device which brings them to an augmented reality video. After entering their contact information, users will be able to enter the contest.
Doritos has proven to be a force in the augmented reality and gaming marketing niches but the question remains — is this type of marketing effective?
According to an experiment conducted by Borawska et al. 2020, in which the sample participated in a simple action virtual reality game that raise’s the player’s awareness of healthy eating. The results were obtained through two methods: survey and cognitive neuroscience tools. Through this study, researchers found that because of the high level engagement needed to participated in virtual reality and its immersive behavior, it can strengthen social marketing advertising. However, the study claims further research is needed regarding the functionality of virtual reality gaming.
Although augmented and virtual reality technology has been experimented and utilized by brands for marketing for years, there is still room for improvement. Doritos is a great example of a brand that should be using this type of technology is reach their target consumers. However, I don’t think this type of marketing will be effective for all brands. For example, brands that sell hygienic products or cleaning products might not find augmented and virtual reality useful. Doritos typical uses this strategy for contest and giveaways but similar to the experiment, I believe every brand can use this strategy to educate consumers about their product in an immersive way. There is much to explore with augmented and virtual reality marketing and I believe it will stay.
Learn more about Doritos here.
