Gamify Your Marketing with Interactive AR Experiences — No coding required
Marketers, you can create Augmented Reality Experiences without having to write a line of code. Metaverse is a FREE Augmented Reality Platform that allows marketers to create all kinds of “Interactive Experiences.”
- Add Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality / Interactivity to your ads or other marketing collaterals.
- Turn marketing campaigns into fun games that consumers love playing, including games of chance, scavenger hunts (your own PokemonGo), etc.
- Award digital prizes or vouchers for physical redemption.
- and much much more…
Make all interactions with your brand fun, exciting, memorable.
Creating AR Experiences is easy — no engineers required
Experiences are built in Metaverse Studio by arranging components on a “Storyboard” and linking them together. Hundreds of components can be combined to create almost anything.
Experiences are instantly viewable on iPhones, iPads, Androids, or Chromebooks using the free Metaverse App. Alternatively, Experiences can be exported as a standalone app (branded by you), and submitted to Apple and Google App Stores.
Metaverse SDK
Create Experiences in Metaverse Studio and embed them in your own app with the Metaverse SDK. Experiences embedded in your app are immediately available and can be updated/changed in seconds.
Below are ideas of how the Metaverse SDK can be used.
What we will cover in this article :
1. Make your Ads perform better — Augment Print, Billboards, TV Commercials, all of your ads
2. Augment the Web
3. Augment Retail
4. Brand Storytelling
5. Gamification
6. Integrate to your existing systems
7. Make your Experience Social
8. Make Experiences Geo-Contextual
9. Record Labels
10. Contests and Sweepstakes
11. Get Started in Minutes
12. Features Marketers Love
Get more out of your existing ads: Augment Print, Billboards, TV Commercials, anything…
Easily attach Interactive Experiences to your existing marketing materials using QR codes. Scanning a QR code will instantly launch an Experience.
Add multimedia content..
When consumers scan a QR code on your ad, they instantly have access to additional content (a game, a brand story, an exclusive video, a poll, a chance to win etc.). Marketers can embed web pages, images, videos, 360 VR, music, gift vouchers (practically anything) into Experiences.
Since Experiences can be rendered in Augmented Reality, products, spokespeople, logos, and objects can appear in a consumers’ environment. Metaverse supports 2D images, Animated GIFs or 3D Objects (.obj files).
Get your point across, and verify understanding
Adding an Interactive Experience to your ads, allows you to both better deliver your message AND make sure that it’s understood. For example, to complete an Experience (and potentially win a prize), a consumer may have to demonstrate their understanding of your message by answering a series of questions (multiple choice or short answer).
You may also want to collect data from consumers who interact with your ad (demographic, geographic, survey, etc.)— their answers to multiple choice and short answer questions, etc.
Use AR to place your product into the consumers’ world
Place your product into the consumers’ environment, by allowing them to “try it on” wherever they are. Metaverse makes it super easy to create Try-On Experiences (similar to Snapchat Filters). For example, a consumer could try on an Omega watch, right on the street where they saw an ad.
Drive purchases
Allow consumers to purchase your product right away by embedding an eCommerce store directly into an Experience (webview of your web store), or route them to a nearby retail location.
Update Experiences on the fly
Even with your ad printed, you can change or update your Experiences instantly on all platforms. No need to submit an update to iOS or Play Stores and wait for approval.
Check out this Qualcomm Bus Stop Ad:
The following video is a demo of an Augmented Bus Stop Ad. The Experience is rendered in Augmented Reality, plays a commercial, verifies that the user paid attention, collects users’ information and gets a user to take a selfie with a custom branded filter. The entire Experience was created in less than 15 minutes by a marketer without writing a single line of code.
Embed Experiences on the web
In addition to QR codes, every Experience has a share link. These links can be added to emails, social posts, websites etc. allowing Experiences to be shared across the web.
Augment Retail Experience
Drive consumers into retail locations by providing opportunities for a prize, exclusive content or by offering a game.
Create loyalty programs that rewards consumers for coming into a retail location often. Loyalty programs can track visits, purchases and interactions with other Experiences.
- Time controls allow marketers to control how often a consumer can check into a retail location (e.g., once every day).
- Reward consumers for completing other Experiences/tasks (checking into another location, scanning an Experience on a print ad, playing a game that was posted to social, etc).
- Integrate to existing POS to track purchases
Award vouchers to consumers who complete a task or Experience. Vouchers can be redeemed at a physical location or online. Once redeemed a merchant can easily clear the item from a consumers inventory using our Voucher Management System.
Create a games that drive consumers to retail locations in search of in-game items, Experiences that will level them up, rare Experiences, and exclusive content, your own PokemonGo.
Attach Experiences to products (CPGs, Clothing, anything) by using QR, or iBeacon(BLE, NFC) tags.
Experiences can be Grouped together so that one Experience allows access to another. For example, a second QR tag could be included INSIDE the cereal box, or be printed on a receipt after purchase, giving the purchaser access to additional interactive content.
Brand Storytelling
Create sophisticated short or long-form AR adventures. By linking various components together, marketers can create “choose your own adventure” stories, that captivate the user.
Stories can be created from a single Interactive Experience or multiple Experiences combined into a Group, like chapters in a book. Stories can be short, and last just a few moments, or can take place over a long period of time (days, weeks, months, years).
Gamification
Add game mechanics to your Experience. Scan the code below to play a Lego AR game!
Here’s an overview of how the LEGO Experience was built
Set Timer
Time can be added to Experiences to create a sense of urgency within an Experience. Add timers to components within your Experience to create a HQ Trivia style game (a consumer only has 10 seconds to answer a question).
Time can also be use to control when a consumer is able to interact with an Experience. An Experience may only be available for a certain amount of time, at a particular time or every 24 hours. For Example, a restaurant could make a loyalty program that allows consumers to get a “token” every day that they go into the restaurant.
Give and Request Items
Experiences can give and request digital items from a consumer’s inventory. These items can be in game items or vouchers that can be redeemed with a merchant. Using items, a marketer can require that a user to interact with with a previous Experience before completing the next. For example, an Experience may give a consumer a digital key, that is then needed by another Experience to unlock a treasure chest.
Items can be grouped together to create an item set. Item sets allow marketers to offer sweepstakes by assigning various probabilities to items within the set. For example, a consumer may have the opportunity to win a voucher from an Experience. The voucher is part of an item set with one other item. The voucher has an assigned probability of 5% and the other item has a probability of 95%. The consumer has a 5% chance of winning the voucher from the Experience.
Item sets can also award items sequentially to consumers who complete a task. For example, the first person to win a scavenger hunt may win a voucher and the second may win a hat. The same could apply to beating a game, answering trivia, being first to an Experience, collecting an item, etc.
Add Probability
Probability can be added within Experiences to create games of chance. Probability components allow marketers to toss a coin, roll n-sided dice, or perform simple probability checks.
Probability can be used in a number of ways:
- Determining a path within an Experience (making it to the end)
- Assigning probability to an action (defeating a dragon)
- Control what item is awarded (winning a prize or in game item that is valuable)
Ask questions
Ask multiple choice questions to take consumers down varying paths. For example, a correct answer will take a consumer to a congratulatory scene, where an incorrect answer will take a consumer to an incorrect scene. Offering multiple responses (buttons) to a statement or question can also be the start of a choose your own adventure narrative.
Ask a consumer for a short answer or a password, only when the response is correct will a consumer be able to continue in an Experience. Short answer responses can render a keyboard or number pad. Inputs to short answer questions can be saved, allowing marketers to collect names, emails, etc.
Ask Consumers to Take Photos or Videos
Add a camera component to an Experience to capture photo or video. Ask consumers to take selfies, photos of their environment, videos completing a challenge etc. These assets can be automatically uploaded to a unique Metaverse URL, a campaign web page, or automatically posted on social media.
Easily create custom filter overlays, similar to Snapchat, by choosing assets from the Metaverse library or uploading your own.
Advanced camera features allow you to ask consumers to take a photo of a specific thing using the Google Vision API. Simply select what you would like Google to look for in an image (an emotion, an animal, an object etc.) and Google will check if the image contains the specified thing.
Add Leaderboards
Leaderboards can be created for any action within Experiences. Increment leaderboards when a consumer completes an Experience, correctly answers a question, defeats a character, etc.
Track Experience Completions
Experience completions or scans can be gamified to create collection games. Consumers may have to complete all of a marketers Experiences or only complete the right Experiences (like Pokemon Go) to win.
Integrate to your existing systems
Metaverse allows developers to add new, custom, components to their Experiences to suit their needs. These components can be scenes, which are visual elements, or blocks, which execute code or logic between scenes. Create blocks that link to analytics tools, chat bots or to various third party APIs.
Make your Experience Social
Add social components to Experiences to create a sense of community. Using a camera scene (a component in Metaverse Studio), marketers can ask consumers to take selfies. These selfies can be uploaded to a unique Metaverse URL, or campaign website, and viewed by participants. For example, an Experience could ask consumers to make a silly face, take a photo with a custom overlay, take a photo of a Ford truck or participate in a challenge (like the ALS Ice Bucket challenge).
Here’s an example of a Photo Wall
Make Experiences Geo-Contextual
Experiences can be placed at physical locations using GPS, requiring a user to be at a physical location in order to interact with the Experience (much like Pokemon Go). When a user is close enough to an Experience, they’re able to tap on it to interact. Experiences can be set to disappear from the map after a consumer interacts with them.
Experiences can also be placed geo-contextually with a QR code that has been added to a flyer, pasted on a wall, added to a store window, etc.
Tournament of Roses Parade
Interactivism, a digital product design studio in Pasadena, used Metaverse to augment the Singpoli float that won the Grand Prize at the 2018 Tournament of Roses Parade.
MLB IT Summit
The San Diego Padres, host of the 2017 MLB IT Summit, created 15 Metaverse Experiences for attendees.
The Experiences asked participants baseball trivia, offered games and challenges, and used custom photo overlays.
Each Experience was placed at specific locations, taking participants on a tour of downtown San Diego.
Sydney Olympic Park
For the inaugural Innovation Games, Sydney Olympic Park developed an augmented reality experience with Metaverse. The goal was to connect people with particular locations and engage them with the event’s providers.
Players were able to win great prizes, including grand finals tickets, while they took part a in fun challenge.
“This sort of activity is taking us where we want to be in education here at the park, right on the edge of where innovation meets learning.” Mike Bartlett, Manager of Education at Sydney Olympic Park
Legendary Man
Legendary Man used Metaverse to host a city wide scavenger hunt. The “Quest Of Champions” took participants to various spots around Albuquerque, NM, guiding players to collect virtual tokens all across the city. The Event supported “Desert Forge,” which is a group helping combat veterans.
The “Quest Of Champions” featured 50+ Metaverse experiences and used several creative scenes, including using a photo overlay, posting to a photo wall, item requests & drops, and even included prizes for the quest winners.
Point Loma University
The Offices of Strengths and Vocation (OSV) from Point Loma Nazarene University built an augmented reality experience welcoming new students to their new home. In collaboration with Metaverse, a local San Diego start-up company, OSV utilizes technology to create a meaningful experience for students. Our mission is to create a thriving and engaging campus. This year, we have used augmented reality to create this experience.
Record Labels
Records labels are using Metaverse to augment festivals, build games for album releases, award discounts on merch or tickets/swag, collect information from fans (name, email, polls, etc.), create custom (Snapchat-style) photo filters, create HQ Trivia-style games and more!
Sony Music at CMA Fest 2017
For the 2017 CMA Fest in Nashville, Sony Music wanted to create a unique experience for fans that allowed them to connect with Sony Music artists in a way that had never been done before.
Using Metaverse, Sony Music created 73 interactive experiences. The result was a game like Pokemon Go, but for country music.
Galantis at EDC
Little Empire Music and Galantis created an augmented reality scavenger hunt in Las Vegas during EDC. The hunt started inside of The Cosmopolitan and finished at the Galantis show at Marquee DayClub. Participants were able to win all kinds of prizes including passes to EDC 2017, a table at Marquee Day Club at Galantis’ show on June 16th, and a Meet & Greet with Galantis.
Atlantic Records at Lollapalooza
Atlantic Records used Metaverse to Augment Lollapalooza with all kinds of Experiences that allowed fans to connect with artists, provided chances to win all kinds of prizes (meet-and-greets, signed merchandise, exclusive tickets, etc.). Thirty Experiences spawned over multiple days, and participants interviewed were thrilled with the activation!
Mad Decent Block Party
Mad Decent created a scavenger hunt in Philadelphia to give away tickets to it’s sold out Block Party show. Six Experiences were placed at physical locations throughout downtown Philadelphia. When a user completed all six Experiences they were given a free ticket to the show and a virtual coin that could be redeemed at the merch table for a discount.
Contests and Sweepstakes
Hidden Cash San Diego
We created a Facebook Event that said we were hiding $500 in Downtown San Diego. To find it, people would need to install the Metaverse app. Participants interacted with 20 AR experiences across San Diego. The first person to interact with the final experience won $500.
No money was spent on advertising, with 4k people RSVP’d via Facebook Event page.
Earned media generated a total market publicity value of $92,383 on television/radio with total local viewership of 950,760 and a print/digital reach of 4.08 million. Coverage Report
Hidden Cash LA
An alien crash-landed in Santa Monica, CA and led participants around the city to find the parts needed to repair his spaceship. 17 experiences spawned on the map and five of those experiences were the correct parts. The first person to find the right combination of parts, and give them to the alien, won. The winner took home $1000.
No money was spent on advertising, and 4.5k people RSVP’d via Facebook Event page.
Event was covered by 81 network affiliates. Earned media market generated publicity value of $821,516, local viewership of 4.1 million and a print/digital reach of 5.8 million. Coverage Report
Augmented Halloween
Halloween night was crawling with spooky creatures that spawned around users, no matter where they were in the U.S. Each experience gave players an item that could be redeemed at Great Pumpkins for a chance to win up to $10,000.
Over 2,500 people participated across the US.
Over 300 people won prizes.
Many played for over 12 hours, and some played longer than 24 hours.
Back to the Past Scavenger Hunt
Doc Brown’s DeLorean broke and participants had to find the right pieces to fix it. 20 experiences spawned in downtown San Diego, but only five of them gave the required parts. Users had to complete side quests, solve trivia questions, and the first person to collect all five and return to Doc Brown won $800.
The winners figured out that you could work as a team by exchanging items amongst each other. Nine people ended up taking home the grand prize.
No money was spent on advertising, and over 1.4k people RSVP’d via Facebook Event page.
386 local businesses in San Diego offered over 20,000 prizes to participants of the event (Starbucks, Chipotle, KFC, Papa John’s, 7–11, Rubio’s, etc.).
91X (San Diego Radio Station) Wrex The Halls Promotion
91X-branded virtual kegs were placed in 35 of the top Anheuser-Busch bars in San Diego. Users interacted with experiences all around San Diego and had to walk into the bars to redeem Metacoins to see if they won. Each Metacoin was a chance to win cash and tickets to 91X’s Wrex The Halls concert.
San Diego State University Trivia Month
We covered SDSU’s campus in trivia experiences. The experiences were programmatically, pairing a database of 16k trivia questions with characters in Metaverse. Experiences were cycled every six hours in a geofenced area around campus. Trivia experiences awarded Aztec Coins to users who answered correctly. Aztec Coins could be taken to two slot machines on campus that awarded prizes from over 300 businesses nearby.
SDSU students played against one another to be on the top of the leaderboard.
The winning student had answered over 200 trivia questions correctly.
Get Started in minutes
Watch the two videos below to start creating your own AR Experiences!
Features that marketers love:
- Render content in Augmented Reality
- Add dialogue to characters
- Ask multiple choice or short answer questions
- Embed video
- Embed 360 VR or 360 images
- Embed websites (eCommerce stores, articles etc.)
- Give in-app items or vouchers that can be redeemed online or at a retail location
- Request in-app items
- Ask a consumer to take a selfie or image of their environment.
- Create custom camera overlays (like Snapchat)
- Add timers to questions or other components
- “Lock” Experiences by time to create loyalty programs, allowing consumers to check in at retail locations once a day
- Create leaderboards
- Use probability (coin flips, dice rolls, simple probability etc.)
- Position experiences in fixed GPS locations or algorithmically within a geofenced area (like Pokemon Go)
- Send notifications
- Capture answers to multiple choice or short answer questions (polls, email collection etc.)
- Expand capabilities of Metaverse by adding custom components
- Link Experiences to existing systems (analytics, campaign websites etc.)
- User properties, that function similar to cookies in a browser, and allow experiences to set and recall information about a consumer in order to personalize later experiences or collect data for retargeting purposes
Check out our stories on Medium to see how others have used Metaverse.
