Using augmented reality in your marketing campaigns
While Augmented reality isn’t a new technology, it’s gaining momentum as technology companies like Meta, promote their focus on developing devices that will enable mainstream consumer access to the technology.
As consumers’ needs tend to evolve as technology advances, marketing activities can be adapted to match those changes, and augmented reality (AR) promises to provide brands with new ways to promote, engage and service their customers.
What is AR?
AR is a technology that blends digital and physical worlds, augmenting reality through the use of smart glasses, smart phones or holographic displays. When the technology is used for marketing and sales, it allows companies to provide to their customers unique ways to explore, customise and engage with their products and services.
The use of AR in digital marketing
Many advocates of AR marketing believe it can be used to boost sales, improve the value of a brand, and provide unique consumer experiences. But what are the advantages, and how are businesses applying these strategies?
By allowing customers to try before they buy
Customers have always desired to experience things before making a purchase. This sales strategy’s usefulness is demonstrated through fitting rooms, cosmetic trials, automotive test drives, and various other related concepts. This is why one of the fastest-growing retail trends is augmented shopping experiences.
Prospective buyers may use AR to model and try on makeup, apparel, and a variety of home-related items without contacting them directly. AR eliminates the need for a substantial physical inventory by allowing clients to test or sample dozens, if not hundreds, of different things to choose the one that best suits their needs.
Through augmented tours and customer service
Businesses may use AR to introduce a digital component to their existing physical sites and goods. Customers may scan a product or item to bring up an AR experience that provides either extra product information or a supplemental brand experience. Tourism, FMCG, and Beauty brands have leveraged AR to ensure their customers stay informed and engaged during each stage of their buying journey.
By boosting your branding materials
By adding a digital component to branding items like business cards and brochures, AR can be used to elevate the customer’s experience with your brand. Users may use their smartphones to scan printed goods to access various features, content, and offers, providing a richer experience with the brand.
By creating a buzz about your business
If done well, creating an innovative, surprising, or enjoyable AR experience may generate a lot of publicity for a company. Because AR is still relatively novel, a well-designed AR experience can elicit conversation and create lasting memories. People favour a brand that keeps them pleased and satisfied, so exposure and goodwill from customers pay off in the long run.
Some Examples of Brands and their use of AR
There are many great examples out there, but we wanted to highlight three novel and creative ways to help show the potential of AR being included in a marketing plan.
Sephora
There’s a reason why many women avoid buying cosmetics online: you can’t tell if you’ll like the lip shade or foundation you’re interested in unless you try it on in person.
Sephora recognises this challenge and has developed the Virtual Artist App. This AR experience allows Sephora app users to see how cosmetic items appear on their faces using their phone’s camera. Users may also learn what tools and supplies they’ll need to apply specific items.
Taco Bell
Taco Bell included an AR component on each Locos Tacos box and drink cup for their Doritos shell marketing. Users could see brand-related Twitter and Facebook content on their smartphones after scanning the box with the Taco Bell app.
Taco Bell also employed AR to foster a better sense of community by linking its consumers with live social media activity. They also promoted their company as a leader in innovation, especially in the fast-food market.
Netflix
Netflix created a set of AR/VR lenses on Snapchat to promote Stranger Things. Users may capture recordings of themselves strolling through one of the houses featured in the show while creatures known as Demigorgons erupt out of the walls.
Netflix has also used AR filters to market its programming, in addition to this lens, which is remarkably engaging for a mobile app.
Conclusion
AR is much more than a fad or a new gaming frontier. It is predicted to be one of the emerging new trends in digital marketing. Through AR, forward-thinking businesses can improve their customers’ buying experience, resulting in increased business opportunities and sales.