As technology continues to develop, more industries such as digital marketing see immense opportunities for growth. One of the new technologies being used by digital marketers today is augmented reality. This amazing and powerful tool allows consumers to experience a product or service before they make any purchase using computer-generated graphics.
Through AR, marketers are able to create an interaction between the real-world and virtual world for their customers. There have been various AR inventions and discoveries since 1974, but only the success of Pokemon Go, an augmented reality mobile game, brought life to modern day augmented reality. Seeing the wonders of augmented reality and how it is greatly influencing digital marketing, it is the perfect time for businesses to consider this astounding technology. If you are a marketer and want to know how augmented reality can help your business, here are new AR perspectives for digital marketing.
Meeting New Customer Needs
The rise of augmented reality responds to the new needs of consumers, considering how fast-paced the digital world is nowadays. People want to be entertained and they will always want new and exciting things. In response, marketers look for better strategies and tools to gain the attention of their customers. Because AR has a vibe of progress and futurism, people find it interesting and promising. It makes them curious about how it works and how it can meet their needs.
One good example of this prospect is Sephora. Using the company’s virtual artist app and the customers’ mobile camera, they will be able to see if a product looks good on them. This saves them time from going to an actual shop and trying the products on. Augmented reality has been this useful to digital marketers and according to Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, “augmented Reality will be as important as eating three meals a day.”
A New Era of Storytelling
The beauty of augmented reality is that it allows marketers to take their consumers on an exciting journey, giving them a more personal experience with the brand. AR is a good tool to tell a story and let your customers to be a part of it. A lot of people are afraid to buy things online because they aren\’t tangible; however, with augmented reality, you’ll be able to give them a real feel of your products or services. By letting them experience how your products actually work and how they look in real life, you can easily eradicate the biggest hurdle towards making a purchase: indecision.
Increasing Brand Awareness and Customer Engagement
In digital marketing, increasing brand awareness and engaging customers are both essential. With augmented reality, there are many ways you can keep your customers entertained while also improving your data engagement analysis. Pizza Hut’s AR menu proves how versatile augmented reality is and how digital marketers can make AR fun and rewarding for customers. Pizza Hut’s team made their menu more engaging through a trivia challenge game which gives customers a chance to win a family day out.
Mobile-Web Augmented Reality
Augmented reality doesn’t stop with mobile applications. In 2018, a California start-up 8th Wall took augmented reality to the mobile web. They call this development 8th Wall Web, where people can experience augmented reality through their web browser. This web technology provides surface detection, positional tracking, hit tests and lighting estimation which can be used to improve consumers’ AR experience. In the next years, AR developers predict that mobile-web augmented reality will become more popular and appealing due to its flexibility.
Augmented Reality for Urban and Neighborhood-Discovery
The real estate, tourism, and hospitality industries can also benefit from AR digital marketing. It will not only help support urban discovery but it can also uncover potential customers for businesses. One real estate company utilizing AR digital marketing is MadPlum Creative. They worked together with Punto Destino to transform traditional housing marketing using an exciting and exceptional user experience. They added a touch of augmented reality to their mobile app which guides their prospective buyers through the neighborhoods they like. This immerses them in the way of life they are about to get on.
Augmented Reality Works for Any Industry
What’s amazing about augmented reality is that you can fit it in any industry! For one, the Ikea Place app shows that AR can be used in the furniture industry. This app allows users to scan their room and design it by placing Ikea products in the digital picture of their room, creating a new environment with the new products. In the clothing industry, a lot of fashion brands have also used their own app where they allow customers to scan their products and see models wearing them along with product’s description and customer reviews. AR has also conquered the health care, cosmetic, travel, food, and entertainment industries.
Daring First Steps to Mixed Reality
Mixed Reality is opening up new opportunities for digital marketers to improve storytelling, increase brand awareness and improve customer experience, giving them a higher ROI. It can also be a powerful tool for learning, prototyping, visualization and events marketing. This year Magic Leap, a Florida-based hardware startup, took daring first steps towards bringing mixed reality devices to consumers by releasing a developer version of their AR headset; even Apple and other big tech companies have their own augmented reality glasses in the works).
While mixed reality shows a bright future for digital marketing, its application can also be challenging. According to Magic Leap interaction director Aleissia Laidacker, “We are always saying: less is more. We actually don’t know all the best practices yet.” The company’s chief content officer Rio Caraeff also has the same view, “Sparse digital content is better than lots of digital content. If the entire physical world is overwhelmed with digital stuff, it can overwhelm my cognitive load.”
Despite the challenges and implications of mixed reality; one thing is for sure: augmented reality can be very useful to digital marketers for many years to come!