Augmented reality, or AR, may finally be coming of age. Combining the digital and physical worlds, an augmented reality offer brands a unique new opportunity to interact with consumers.
With augmented reality, marketers can take the physical world and combine it with the digital world, giving both users and brands the ability to connect even further with a product before, during and after making a purchase.
Augmented Reality is nothing new.
It's been around officially since 1990, when Boeing researcher Tom Caudell coined the term to describe a digital display used by aircraft electricians that blended virtual graphics onto a physical reality. In other words, augmented reality combines two very different dynamics: the perception of personal exclusivity and a multi-dimensional, sensory experience.
Recently, The Times of India created an interesting augmented reality campaign for Atria Convergence Technologies, a broadband provider
ACT’s main markets are Bangalore and Hyderabad, with smaller markets in Nellore and Vijayawada. The company is a fairly new brand, launching broadband in April 2011. By January 2012, ACT’s customer numbers had spiked, essentially because of its media campaign with The Times of India, as well as cable scrolls, on-ground activations, and online and consumer promotions.
Among them, Bangalore has the highest percentage of tech savvy, Internet-using adults, and ACT wanted to capture that niche — hence the campaign focus on what, specifically, 10 MBPS (megabytes per second) can do for the consumer.
INMA has released a new report, titled “Making Print + Digital Work For Advertisers.”
The report concludes that an effective marketing campaign will be mix of both print and digital advertising.
Companies all over the world are using this technology and AR is instrumental in many advertising campaigns.
Volkswagen in Norway printed a special ad depicting a long stretch of road with AR markers. The print ad, published in several Norwegian magazines, then instructed users to download an app that lets them “test drive” the car directly on the print ad. The app contains three different vehicle features (depicted within the app) so that product differentiation didn’t get lost in the “wow” factor.
Readers could access a range of digital content in the December edition of Top Gear Magazine using Aurasma’s AR app. It included videos of the presenters embedded in the editorial content and a highlights reel of 2011 best cars on the front cover.
Last year, McDonald’s India had launched their Oreo McFlurry sundae nationwide with a stunning Augmented Reality campaign based on junaio. Pointing the smartphone’s camera at a picture of the tasty dessert let the McFlurry cup suddenly swirl and bounce, with chocolate tablets flying up and exploding chocolate chips all over the creamy surface.
It was the first ad campaign of this kind in India. The especially interesting thing about it is that it is so comprehensive with different media coming together in a way that virtually everybody could enjoy the AR display, with or without smartphones.
The picture of the product in McFlurry ads in newspapers and magazines served as marker for smartphones or tablets.
Augmented reality doesn't exist just in the online and television/film world. As smart phones continue to proliferate into our daily lives, offering these experiences in a mobile setting becomes increasingly important. And in the future, it will likely be the main way to reach consumers via augmented reality.
AR will play a major role for companies in the retail sector, others marketers feel that any brand that wants to innovate and interact with its consumers can use AR. Luxury is another sector, which can use AR to give an experience of its products to consumers without actually handing over the product before a sale.
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