Augmented reality (AR) has already become a buzzword in the world of technology what with Pokémon GO, a bestselling AR mobile game played by millions of people all over the world.
However, AR isn’t just about games. It goes far beyond gaming and entertainment. AR has breathtaking prospects in many industries, from education to healthcare to construction. Now AR has come to advertising, and it’s going to change the way the digital advertising market functions in 2020.
Augmented reality (AR) is still largely a novelty — AR’s newness alone contributes to its ability to surpass print, online, and television advertisements in terms of shock-factor. AR can capture people’s attention for over 85 seconds, increase interaction rates by 20 percent, and improve click-through rates to purchase by 33 percent.
Right now, people will stop and look at AR-inspired experiences, regardless of the campaign’s overall quality. But as more companies incorporate AR into their marketing strategies, and as AR technology becomes more ubiquitous, you’ll need to produce more thoughtful campaigns to impress your audience. Eventually, AR will become mainstream, and its prevalence in the industry will make it harder to compete.
What Is Augmented Reality In Advertising?
A basic definition is, integrating AR technology to embed and embody marketing content in a customer environment. Alternatively, it can be thought of as a marketing or sales strategy that allows brands to help consumers interact with them and make smarter purchasing decisions and reduce returns.
Below is an example video of an Augmented Reality Skateboard App at Burnside Skatepark in Portland Oregon.
Reasons to Adopt Augmented Reality in Advertising
1. Let Customers Try Before They Buy
Potential customers have always wanted to try products before purchasing them. Fitting rooms, cosmetic samples, automobile test drives, and many other related concepts testify to the effectiveness of this sales strategy. Augmented shopping experiences are one of the rising trends in the retail industry.
Using AR, prospective customers can model and try on makeup, clothing items, and a wide range of home-related products without needing to directly interact with them. AR negates the need for a large physical inventory to allow customers to try on or sample dozens or even hundreds of items in search of the one that best meets their needs.
2. Augment Touring & Assistance
Augmented reality offers the potential for businesses to add a digital component on top of their physical locations and products. Customers can scan a product or object to pull up an AR experience tailored either toward giving additional information about the product or some form of supplemental brand-related experience.
The application of Augmented reality in advertising in this regard stretches into numerous industries and markets. For example, the ticket-sales company StubHub created an augmented reality app, which allowed users to view a 3D display of the stadium where the Super Bowl was played. Fans were able to visualize the look of the field from various seats to choose the right seat for them.
Starbucks has turned to augmented reality to digitize the experience of touring one of their coffee shops. Users can scan objects within the shop to access a virtual tour, conveying additional information to supplement the physical site.
3. Offering Fun And Affordable Advertising
Despite the fact that digital advertisements are incredibly popular, conventional print advertisements are still a long way from out of date. Nonetheless, putting advertisements in mainstream print magazines can be somewhat costly.
For instance, one full-page color commercial in the Wall Street Journal may cost as much as $221,000, and the rates might be considerably higher in other national magazines.
Augmented reality advertising is normally more moderate and undeniably more vivid than a print advertisement. Obviously, the cost for an AR promotion varies depending upon its quality: a basic Augmented Reality advertisement can cost around $5,000 to create, while an advanced AR campaign with outstanding designs may go up to $100,000.
OVR offers an advertising system with transparent pricing. The decentralization of the OVR´s marketplace on the blockchain allows managing supply and demands with utmost transparency and traceability.
4. Creating Emotional Connections
Augmented reality ads are immersive, which means they help marketers create a certain emotional connection with customers. Unlike images or banners, for example, AR ads are interactive and lifelike: consumers can see and even interact with them.
Imagine, for instance, an eye-catching billboard advertising a just-released movie. Now think of the magic AR can do: passers-by point their smartphone cameras at the billboard and watch the trailer on their smartphone screens.
Which of these two strategies (a billboard or an AR ad) is likely to incite more interest? No doubt, most customers will opt for an AR ad.
Interacting with AR ads, consumers feel like they’re playing an engaging video game. This builds an emotional connection with customers, encouraging them to make purchases.
Needless to say, an emotional connection is a great tool for increasing brand awareness. People better recall brands they have positive associations with, so AR ads are perfect not only for promoting sales, but also for building a company’s reputation.
This strategy was used in the Arctic Home Campaign by Coca-Cola and the World Wide Fund. The campaign, aimed at the protection of polar bears and their natural habitat, included an augmented reality event at the Science Museum in London.
Visitors could see themselves interacting with virtual animals in their natural environment. This event helped the Coca-Cola company create deep emotional connections between people and the brand.
Also Read | Augmented Reality App Development The Future You Can See
Three Main Benefits of AR for B2B Marketing
1. Dynamic Sales Presentation
Say goodbye to boring brochures, flyers, and PowerPoint presentations. Instead of arming your salespeople with stagnant papers or dark-room presentations, arm them with an interactive experience. Their presentation strategy can switch from telling them about your brand and products to showing them.
From brand familiarization to product introduction, augmented reality can bring it to life. Instead of showing a picture of your CEO, why not have her pop up in the room and introduce herself with a custom video? Instead of putting your product in the potential client’s hands, why not put it on them? For example, if you are trying to sell your brand of earrings to a shop, they can “wear” them without actually trying them on using virtual try-on AR technology. The possibilities are endless!
2. “Real Life” Look at Product Lines
Whether you’re selling microchips or refrigerators, you can layout your product line wherever you are. Clients can scroll through products, or feel like they are in a showroom. Best of all, they can zoom and click to get more information and interact with the products. But remember, the products aren’t just tiny pictures on a screen; it’s a 3-D interactive experience in the real space around you.
A phenomenal example of this in-action is the Samsung Life Unstoppable event, with Web AR experiences developed and deployed by Aircards. The team created experiences to showcase Samsung’s latest product innovations. Take a look at the Web AR product showcase below.
3. Customization Options
Let’s say your product can be customized to any brand. You can show them your product line with their logo and brand colors, without having to actually manufacture samples. And, without losing the 3-D effect! Instead of showing them 2-D custom mock-ups or real samples that might end up in the trash, show virtual 3-D samples that move and react to the augmented reality you’ve created. That’s what AR can bring to B2B marketing.
Conclusion
While a number of brands still can’t access AR quite yet, marketers can still take a note from how these brands creatively implemented a new technology into their content marketing strategies.
Ultimately, as the media landscape changes and technology gets more advanced, marketers at business of different sizes might have more opportunities to implement technology. And, when they do, they’ll need to think creatively and innovatively about how they invest in it.
Want to learn more about how we incorporate Augmented Reality in our mobile apps? Talk to us for a FREE 15 minute consult.
