What Augmented Reality Means for Your Marketing Strategy
Augmented reality is what’s in! Make sure your marketing strategy has a plan for augmented action. Read how you can start taking steps to integrate AR into your next campaign. (Don’t forget to stop by our most recent 2019’s new products catalog)
The future is here; we are now able to create our own realities. Therefore, we as marketers need to be on the forefront of integrating our messages into those realities. The two most prominent digital trends of 2017 are branded content and augmented reality. As a result, marketers must successfully combine the two to communicate with a futuristic audience.
Augmented reality combines computer-generated images with the user’s real-world experience, creating a composite view (think Pokemon Go). Virtual reality is a three-dimensional image or environment generated by a computer. As a result, both have exciting marketing potential in the upcoming years. In this article, we’ll be focusing on blending branded content with an augmented reality experience.
While augmented reality is appealing to innovators and creatives alike, it’s also an amazing channel to send your message to your audience. Why? AR creates a memorable and immersive experience for viewers.
AR Smartphone Application
Pantone recently achieved this with their new AR smartphone application. Through the app, users take a picture and can use the “colour picker” feature to reveal to them exactly what shades are in the photo. When using the app can also generate custom colour palettes based on users’ Instagram photos. As a result, Pantone created a successful AR experience for their audience to interact with their brand and portray themselves as a tech-savvy brand.
As we described in our 5 Senses article, customers are more likely to remember your brand and its message when they experience it with more than one sense. Therefore, the same applies to augmented reality. AR is an innovative and trendy channel to make your brand come to life and to deliver your message to your consumer, however in order to make that messaging stick, it needs a tangible partner.
For example, a promotional calendar that combines a branded gift with technology. BIC created a smartphone app that animates a calendar’s images when scanned. This type of promotional merchandise integrates a tangible product with technology to create a full sensory experience; making your messaging memorable beyond a single digital moment.
So how can you begin to integrate an augmented experience into your marketing efforts? A 360-degree video or an augmented reality mobile application is a good start. Just remember, while delivering your message through AR is creative and new, making your messaging stick means creating a mixed experience between virtual and tangible.
STATISTICS:
- “Deloitte Global predicts that virtual reality (VR) will have its first billion-dollar year in 2016, with about $700 million in hardware sales.” http://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/articles/tmt-pred16-media-virtual-reality-billion-dollar-niche.html
- “The total number of active virtual reality users is forecast to reach 171 million by 2018.” http://www.statista.com/statistics/426469/active-virtual-reality-users-worldwide/
- 43 million: the number of virtual reality users in 2016. http://www.statista.com/statistics/426469/active-virtual-reality-users-worldwide/
- http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Virtual-Reality-Immersive-Medium-Marketers/1013526