Digital Depth: Your Traditional Marketing, Upgraded!

Augmented Reality (AR) is a mammoth technology trend for 2022.

You've read about it, heard about it, maybe even used it yourself. But you still don't know if it's right for you.

If this describes you, and you just can't picture how to incorporate AR into your current strategy, then keep reading because this article is for you! I will help you understand the power of Augmented Reality - far beyond face-filters and photobooths.

Firstly, I think it's important to acknowledge that our smartphones are now officially an extension of ourselves. They are so intimately integrated into our everyday lives that we can't function without them. They recognize our voices, respond to our commands, and keep life moving along smoothly from completing simple tasks like setting a timer, playing a song, and finding us the nearest sushi restaurant with 4 star reviews (then taking us there). And more complex requests are being embraced constantly, such as locking our doors, ordering our groceries, and showing us how to change a tire. They bridge the miles that are between us and our loved ones, bringing us instantly face to face no matter how far apart we actually are.

You get the point. We're already part cyborg with our smart devices, so it's time to realize our full potential. And THAT is what 2022's top trend is all about. It's time to start thinking about Augmented Reality as an everyday utility.

Think about it - over the past forty years, the way we've interacted with machines has become a natural part of our daily lives.

We started with a keyboard as an input and a monitor as an output, then in the early 80's the magic of point and click was introduced to consumers as the new way to interact with computers. And we still use that today, however, the invention of the iPhone in 2007 brought us touch and gestures (like pinching and swiping).

Today we have adopted more natural modes of interaction such as speech and gaze thus shifting our attention away from the mobile screen and back to the world around us.

This is really where Augmented Reality comes in. AR provides intuitive interaction with the world around us and we are primed to use it, whether we know it or not!

LAYERING:

Did you know that all the surfaces around you have the potential to contain multiple layers of additional information and/or experience?

When you wake up in the morning, you should be looking at your cereal box as your new Television. And your orange juice label as a smart container offering additional health/diet info and a fun work out routine to compliment your juice boost!

Store window displays should be living as additional media channels. (Take that jacket off the mannequin in the window and try it on yourself!) Receive promotions or enter competitions - all because retailers were smart enough to activate traditional surfaces, like a window pane, with Augmented Reality.

Imagine hotel keycards providing an AR-based concierge service, using an interactive and entertaining way to provide important links to hotel information, city attraction discount codes, and games for the kids. All from the keycard they handed you when you checked in.

Consumers’ expectations that objects and surfaces will offer additional layers of content will constantly grow as we continue to develop web-based augmented reality, and easing the traditional adoption challenges people have faced.

SURFACING and the evolution of AR:

As layering digital content onto surfaces continues to be normalized, the next evolution of Augmented Reality will be the delivery of contextual and personalized content at the right time, all by itself. We’re calling this the “Cloud of AR” - content and information delivered to you based on your preferences - location, gesture, etc.

A great example of this might be the automatic translation of foreign language text in your field of view - which is already available and keeps improving. Imagine holding your phone up in a foreign country and having all visible text within your camera’s view appear in English for you. You might also hold your smartphone up along a street and have digital wayfinding automatically show you that a Sushi restaurant with four stars is only a block away and some other suggestions in case your taste changed recently?

Future iterations of this will be delivered with "always on" peripherals like glasses… or dare I say it? Biotechnical optimization of the human body?!

So what does all of this mean to you?

It's time to augment your customers' reality and provide some digital depth to your traditional marketing mindset. Amazing! And you don’t have to start from scratch. You can repurpose your existing marketing material in the following ways:

Activate a business card with links to your website, csv, socials, Vimeo …
Engage trade show visitors with fun virtual tours of your sites, services or products and book demos on the spot.
Have your CEO or VIP record a welcome or provide executive messaging to event invitations, save-the-dates, or gift boxes.
Try and Buy is a big trend in AR - Digitize your products and expand your thinking beyond clothing and furniture.
- We worked with a manufacturer to produce a shower build where we outline the steps involved, using their products. Consumers placed a virtual concrete base down on their table and walked themselves through the steps in full 3D, with hotspots to tap for additional info. There were links to purchase throughout as well.

Surprise and Delight (and drive engagement) with fun AR games, scavenger hunts, competitions, prize entries etc..

Repurposing existing marketing investments with a digital layer provides new access to real-time analytics. Metrics like number of scans, total dwell time, time of day and even custom counts show exactly where your clients have interacted with the activation, and provide you with tangible reporting to prove the value of your activations.

Augmented Reality is not just about surprise and delight anymore. It’s time to acknowledge this technology as an affordable tool to accomplish your business objectives today, and the foundation of the bridge you’ll be building to bring your strategies into the very real universe of extended reality tomorrow. Mic Drop.

Joel OlandescaMarch 15, 2022