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Key Industries:
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Clothing
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Entertainment & Leisure
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Household Goods
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Motor
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Retail
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Key Sectors:
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Design & Build
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mobile
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Mobile Apps
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Viral Marketing
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08.04.2010
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Augmented Reality
If you haven’t already heard of Augmented Reality (or AR) then you soon will. This clever technology brings together the real world and virtual reality in real time and allows you to interact with 3D images through the web cam on your laptop or PC or through smart phones like the iPhone.
Seeing is believing - How can brand owners use AR in their marketing campaigns?
More and more brand marketers are experimenting with the technology to bring fully immersive brand experiences to their consumers that are exciting, innovative and most importantly, engaging. The potential is huge whether the objective is to raise brand awareness, drive traffic to a website and in store or launch a product at an event.
Sophisticated methods have already been used by brands such as LEGO and BMW to promote new products both in store and online. LEGO employed AR to show their customers exactly how much fun there was inside a box of LEGO. Using special augmented reality software which mixes virtual 3D animations into a live video of the actual product packaging, LEGO launched the Digital Box in selected stores worldwide. The smart packaging of the Digital Box allows children great and small to hold special LEGO boxes – containing a hydraulic digger or police station, for example – up to an interactive kiosk and watch a 3D animation of the product inside the box – superimposed on the box. As a result, buyers can hold both the box and the finished product in their hands.
Take a look at the LEGO Digital Box here
Engagement through AR
More recently, engaging audiences of all ages everywhere is the Sony PS3 “Eye-Pet” which is an exciting development in the gaming spectrum that brings the concept of the virtual pet to an entirely different dimension
Take a look at the Sony PS3 "Eye-Pet" here
Pretty mind blowing stuff but you don’t need big budgets and large production teams to enhance your product with AR. Check out this amazing “Expression of Joy” campaign from BMW for the launch of the new Z4. Users print out a symbol and use their web cams to get behind the wheel of a virtual Z4 which acts as a 3D paintbrush with which to create your own design or ‘Expression of Joy’ on your desktop. Once you have finished painting you can click the ’share’ button allowing you to put your design on Facebook.
Check out the “Expression of Joy” campaign from BMW here
So what’s next? There are already fantastic advances in augmented reality on the iPhone where users are able to find the nearest restaurants or train stations by merely holding up their iPhone in the middle of an unfamiliar city centre. The opportunities are seemingly endless. Therefore, marketers who really want to create a point of difference from the competition and join in the AR discussion that has already begun should now be trying to harness the power of this exciting form of consumer engagement.
Andy Park
Lead Web Designer, Coolpink
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