The Future: Augmented Reality in Marketing

Augmented Reality offers a new world for marketing that we’ve ever seen before. Immersive marketing solutions can have consumers living an experience, viewing products from the comfort of their couch, and even testing these products in their own space.

Ever wondered what that custom couch might look like in your living room, but aren’t sure enough to pull the trigger on your order? Well, now you can see exactly what it’ll look like before you buy.

What is Augmented Reality?

According to google, Augmented Reality is “a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world, thus providing a composite view”. Medium predicts that in the next 2 years, 1.9 billion people will use AR each month. Even today, 3 billion devices worldwide are AR enabled.

I know what you might be thinking… you don’t have any of those swanky virtual reality goggles – so why would this matter to you? Well, there are many companies out there working on iOS and Android based applications that could bring AR right to your phone, with no other necessary equipment.

Sure, AR is a bit of a chicken and egg situation. Without the base technology, there’s no AR, but without the virtual renderings of products and experiences to lay over this technology, there’s no need for the technology itself. Because of that, it has been a slower-to-market technology than many would have liked. However, it’s becoming cheaper and easier than ever to develop AR compatible experiences.

So, what’s the future of AR in Marketing?

Try Before You Buy:

Let’s take a mid to high-end couch for example. This is the kind of purchase that you’d like to make just once or twice. Often there are hundreds of choices for size, fabric and color, and you really don’t want to make the wrong choice! Augmented Reality could offer you the opportunity to “see” a given couch in 3D, in your own living room, before you swipe your card. From a marketing perspective, as a manufacturer, you could reap the benefits of this in the form of higher conversion rates and fewer returns. And what a fantastic customer experience you’d be offering your customers!

Virtual Tours:

Particularly in the real estate space, virtual tours can be fantastic way from architects and home builders to entice their customers. Rather than spending significant time and money on a model show home, and having customers travel to view the model in-person, Augmented Reality could give consumers this same walk-through experience from anywhere in the world, at a fraction of the cost to the developers.

Product Demonstrations:

We’re all familiar with that excitement when a brand like Tesla or Apple launches a new product. High end video productions have us glued to our screens, wondering what new innovative features will be available. But imagine a world where we could test these products and interact with them in more ways than just video. Augmented reality could, and likely will, be a game changes for product releases and pre-order demonstrations in the years ahead.

Have you seen augmented reality used in your industry today? Do you think it’s a trend that is here to stay? Drop us a line, we’d love to discuss it with you!