Peter Van-Helsdingen in the barrel cellar at Calamus Estate Winery.
AUGMENTED REALITY COURSES TEACH NEW REALITY OF MARKETING By Tiffany Mayer
A
sk someone in the wine industry how to connect with a consumer, and they might suggest visiting a winery to meet the vintner and taste their handiwork. Peter Van-Helsdingen is keen to try a different approach. The owner of Calamus Estate Winery has enlisted a Goodman master’slevel marketing class, taught by Prof. Joachim Scholz, to develop both a marketing campaign and a bottle label for his high-end appassimentostyle wine, incorporating augmented reality to immerse consumers in the story of Calamus without ever having to set foot in his Jordan, Ont., tasting room. In the process, Van-Helsdingen hopes to forge a connection with wine drinkers that will make them loyal to the Calamus brand from the comfort of their homes. “Our whole marketing plan is to create an experience (consumers) can’t get at another local winery,” Van-Helsdingen said. By dictionary definition, augmented reality, or AR, “is an interactive experience in which a user’s real-world environment is enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information” that taps into the senses and emotions of the person using it. It can be something visual or a
6
GOODMAN: THE MAGAZINE
sound created by technology. Think of Pokemon Go. It wasn’t the first use of AR but it took the technology mainstream when the app enticed people to use their smart phones to find Pikachu and friends in their neighbourhood. Van-Helsdingen got the idea to use AR to market wine from Australian vintner 19 Crimes, which encourages consumers to use a smart phone app to bring labels to life and learn the story of the criminals whose mugs grace their bottles. By working with Brock students enrolled in what’s believed to be the only dedicated AR marketing course offered in the world, Calamus is poised to be the first Canadian winery to use the technology to sell its wine and, with it, an experience that goes beyond the glass. Meanwhile, students get an experience beyond any textbook while learning to understand that AR is more than applying bunny ear filters to their selfies in Snapchat. “Augmented reality is one of the most exciting developments with marketing and society as a whole,” Prof. Scholz said. “There’s going to be huge opportunity for students at Brock University. As more
