Is Augmented Reality the Future of Interactive Advertising?
The developments in technology are transforming interactive advertising as we know it. Though its fundamental principles remain, interactive advertising is taking a very different and purposeful direction into the digital world. And most specifically, into the world of Augmented Reality (AR).
Conversation about Augmented Reality has exploded in the past year, used in a huge number of ways; from military to medical to education; and not forgetting PokĂŠmon Go. And now, with businesses always on the look-out for new ways to reach and engage their customers, AR is becoming the latest channel to advertise brands and products.
Before delving into the many examples that AR is being used in interactive advertising, let’s explain what AR is.
WhatisAugmented Reality(AR)? AR involves placing a virtual layer over the user’s existing real world view. The digital world is therefore integrated with the real world, all in real-time. By 2022, the global augmented reality market is expected to reach almost $90bn. This technology is designed to immerse the user, and so increase their engagement – making it the perfect tool for advertising. So let’s take a look at some of the many examples of AR in interactive advertising and how it could develop in the future.
How is AR transformingInteractive Advertising?
1. Print The print medium has undoubtedly suffered in the past 30 years, but AR startup
WOWSOME believe it is not the medium itself that is no longer relevant, but its form – static. So what if you transformed print into a dynamic form using AR? By pointing your smartphone at print content through the WOWSOME app, these static mediums come to life in the form of video, 3D, animations and much more – all through AR. For example, hold your phone over an image of a home in a real-estate brochure like seen below, and you can view a video of the interior of the house. This is currently being used for posters, packaging, print ads and even t-shirts, though its possibilities are endless.
2. Billboards Billboard ads can be an effective channel to reach your audience, but living in such a fast-paced world, they can all too easily fade into background. However, AR can help solve this.
In 2013, British Airways placed a giant AR billboard in busy Piccadilly Circus. As a British Airways flight flew over the board, a BA ad began depicting a child looking up and pointing to the actual plane in the sky as it flew past – merging the real with the virtual. It was a great success with the official video generating over 1.5 million views
on YouTube as shown below, and the accompanying #lookup going viral on social. 3. Bus Shelters Back in March 2016, JCDecaux, the largest outdoor advertising company, was contracted to install 1000 HD digital screens across London’s bus shelters. Although considered a huge step forward in the interactive advertising industry, AR tech is taking this even further, as exampled by Pepsi.
At a bus shelter on New Oxford Street in London, Pepsi installed what appeared to simply be a glass screen, but was in fact an AR display. So as Londoners sat waiting for their bus and looked through the glass, AR visuals appeared in front of the real-world street, ranging from tigers to flying alien saucers. And all their reactions were of course all captured on video which went viral, currently with over 7.5 million views on YouTube as shown below.
4. Storefronts One of the more common examples of AR interactive advertising, many high-streets are trialling AR-based storefront displays. Online luxury fashion retailer Net-A-Porter were one of the first to do so, creating AR storefronts in 2011 in a number of capital cities to promote the new Karl Lagerfield collection. On first glance, the storefronts looked normal. But viewed through a mobile device on the Net-A-Porter app and users could then enjoy catwalk videos, 360 degree product views and a built-in a checkout feature for immediate purchasing. It gained great awareness and engagement, encouraged sales and cleverly encouraged downloading of their app. Expect to see much of this tech in the future.
Speaking at WIRED Retail 2015, Si Brown, co-founder of AR firm skingz, envisaged that interactive AR advertising would become ubiquitous in the near future. People would not search Google for their nearby post office or coffee shop – they would simply hold their phone or wearable up to see that information augmented onto the street in front of them. And Uber passengers would be provided with an AR tag so the Uber drive could easily find them on a busy road.
Whether this becomes reality is impossible to determine. However, as awareness and technology develops, it seems inevitable that we will see more and more AR interactive ads around us.