Can Augmented Reality Make Your Marketing Interactive?

Trends come and go in the technology world and more often than not they disappear without much notice. Once in a blue moon however, a trend becomes common practice. Augmented reality (AR) seems to be one of those trends that will stick around. Throughout the past year you’d have struggled to find someone who hasn’t heard of the best-selling AR mobile game, Pokémon GO, or hasn’t used AR stickers on their mobile phone.

However, AR shouldn’t just be thought of in terms of fun and entertainment, it is far more than that. AR can have benefits in almost any industry you can think of, whether that is retail, education or healthcare. For now though, we’re going to focus on how AR could change the marketing game forever.

AR breaks through marketing barriers to make adverts interactive, paving the way for marketers and advertisers to reach out to consumers in an innovate style. Multiple companies are already utilising and benefiting from AR in order to stay one step ahead of the competition.
Still sceptical about how AR can benefit you? Allow us to change your mind.

Why should you adopt augmented reality in your advertising?

The digital advertising market is growing fast. According to a report by Statista, the global spend on digital advertising is expected to reach $335 billion in 2020.

Although early adopters of AR advertising have often created reasonably basic content, we are now seeing increasingly innovative and ambitious examples reaching the public. This surge of new AR content is causing a huge increase in the number of end users with Statista forecasting that there will be 200 million people globally using mobile AR in 2018 (compared to 60 million in 2013).

Without further ado let’s reach into the world of AR and explore some of the many benefits to the technology.

Reason 1 — A connection beyond traditional marketing

Augmented Reality ads create an experience unlike any form of standard marketing. They have the ability to be immersive, interactive and compelling which all help in forming an emotional, yet virtual, connection between the marketers and consumers.
For example, imagine you’re walking down the street and notice an ordinary advert for a blockbuster film or upcoming concert — you take a look and carry on your way.
Now imagine an AR advert where passers-by can simply point their phone cameras in the direction of the poster and, on their phone screen, the movie trailer or the music video of the band’s most recent single appear.
Which of these two scenarios do you think would create more interest? I know which one would catch my eye more!

When consumers can interact with an advert and explore a product in a fun way, they’re naturally going to want to embrace the company’s brand more. Becoming part of a virtual world and sparking a little emotional connection does wonders for brand awareness and will ensure that the consumer remembers the experience and the company.

Recently the PGA tour, with sponsorship from Mastercard, have created a simple yet effective AR app in a bid to excite golfing fans before the summer events and potentially encourage new supporters to the sport.

This app, simply called ‘PGA TOUR AR’, allows users to project an image of numerous beautiful golf courses onto their very own kitchen tables. From there, the user can view ‘ShotLink’ player data to see and compare exactly where their favourite golfers have played their shots on that very course.

Reason 2 — Budget-friendly advertising

Despite what you might think, augmented reality marketing isn’t excessively expensive. Whilst the price of AR adverts is a wide spectrum (starting from as low as £4000 and reaching a potential high of £75,000 depending on complexity), it could end up being remarkably cheaper than a ‘traditional’ advert where you could splash away as much as £150,000 on a full-page colour advert in a well-known magazine or newspaper.

There are two main forms of augmented reality. AR adverts can be created with the help of either of them.

Marker-based AR adverts that require a target image that can be used by a customer’s smartphone to bring virtual content to life

Location-based AR adverts don’t require any target images and allow the virtual content to be created based on the end user’s location from GPS data.

Reason 3 — The big one. Increasing sales

The main thing you want from investing in augmented reality is a sales boost. Fortunately, AR offers far more than just advertising; AR can become a user’s virtual wardrobe.

Imagine looking through a brochure for a clothes company and finding multiple items that you want to buy but have no idea what they would look like on you. This barrier doesn’t exist for companies using AR. With the help of an augmented reality app, you’ll be able to virtually try on the clothes you like before you purchase. The same idea can be used within a store to prevent the need for changing rooms by using a large screen with AR capabilities. Thanks to this, companies can create risk-free shopping and eliminate any doubt that may persuade a customer to not buy from their shop.
This makes AR a vital tool in boosting sales and increasing brand value.

Examples of effective augmented reality marketing

There aren’t a considerable amount of augmented reality adverts and applications around currently due to it still being very much an emerging technology. You’d never guess they weren’t that common though due to the vast amount of interest that is created whenever a new experience appears. It won’t be long until AR is seen all around us and is being explored in more and more innovate ways.

Below are 3 of the best uses we’ve seen involving augmented reality that will show just how versatile the technology can be.

1 — IKEA AR application

When one of the most well-known furniture stores, IKEA, announced it was creating a mobile AR app back in 2013 it was one of the very first adopters of the technology. Since then, due to the app’s success, IKEA has created a new app simply named ‘IKEA place’ that has been created in Apple’s ARKit software

In ‘IKEA Place’ customers can easily view furniture from the retailer’s catalogue. By pointing a smartphone or tablet camera towards an area of a room the user can view how specific pieces of furniture would look if you bought them. This app has allowed customers to check whether the colour, style and (most importantly) size of the product will suit the room and has added a sense of security to any purchases.

2 — Audi Quattro coaster app

Audi have recently released an augmented reality smartphone app that is triggered by their TV adverts. This genius app brings the car out of the television screen and into your lounge or driveway.

If you have the Audi quattro coaster app installed, it will automatically recognise specific Audi TV adverts which will, in turn, start a series of AR animations.
Created for Audi Norway this clever application lets the users have a detailed virtual tour around a model of the a vehicle. You can get closer to it, walk around it and even peer through the windows to see the interior.
If looking at a model of the car isn’t your thing though, you also have the ability to create your very own ‘Scalextric-style’ track for your car to blast around on.

3 — Pepsi AR bus stop advert

We’ve all been there. Sat in a dreary bus stop looking out at the pouring rain, waiting for a bus to eventually come along. Usually there’s a large advert on the side of the shelter that has a solitary static image with text. As advertisements go, they’re certainly not memorable, but is this soon to change?

Pepsi, it seems, may have found the solution to waiting tediously for a bus.
By installing a screen and a camera on opposite sides of the shelter’s side panel they created what seemed to be a generic window. Throughout the day though, numerous AR events were triggered on the screen showing cinematic effects that seemed to be occurring on the other side of the bus stop.

This advertisement would certainly make your commute one to remember.

Augmented reality must jump some hurdles to be home free

Despite the vast amount of benefits attributed to AR and its potential ability to revolutionise the advertising industry, there are a few hurdles in the way. Two of these hurdles are explored below.

1 — Barriers around hardware

If you’ve had the chance to take a look at one of the early adopters of apps/games containing AR elements, you will probably have noticed that a number of them look like they have come straight from the PlayStation 1 in terms of visual experience.

Here therefore lies one of the more substantial issues with augmented reality games and apps. Smart handheld devices don’t yet have the graphical prowess of a desktop PC or dedicated games consoles meaning creators must currently focus on user experience over visuals in order to grab the consumer’s attention.

Thankfully, modern mobile phones and tablets are steadily becoming more and more technologically able and will soon be able to provide flawless AR experiences.

2 — The hassle and limitations from mobile apps and games

If you’ve spotted any augmented reality related technology recently, they will most likely have been on a mobile platform and generally have their very own app. Individual AR experiences having their own specialised apps can cause confusion and inconvenience to the user which is probably why a large portion of consumers will draw the line at this stage without actually giving the app a chance.
For AR to fully kick off and push for a large share in the advertising world it must become easier to use for the general public. Not everyone will know their way around a smartphone well enough to make use of the experience which could put a massive dent in the amount of new customers the advert would potentially bring.
Fortunately, there are companies looking to improve AR on the whole in order to make it more accessible to the masses. They are looking to do this by cutting out the need for a bespoke app and instead create adverts that just use a smartphone camera or similar device.

This evolution will certainly give AR the boost it needs.

Is now the right time to jump into AR?

If you are looking to stay one step ahead of your competition then it is most certainly the right time to invest in augmented reality!

According to a report (2017) from Digi-Capital, the augmented reality market will be reaching $83 billion by 2021 with mobile AR being the main driver. When we reach 2021, and AR has become a staple form of marketing, you want to be leaps and bounds ahead of your competition. To make sure this happens you must become proficient with augmented reality now.

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