“Since We Cannot Change Reality, Let Us Change The Eyes That See Reality” – Nikos Kazantzakis
The brands looking for innovative ways to emotionally connect with the audience realized the need to incorporate Augmented Reality into their marketing, advertising, and branding solutions.
“We all know retail is in the midst of a serious tech renaissance. But what does that mean for marketers today?” asked the VP and Industry lead of retail at Oath, Sarah Martinez, at a discussion on retail innovation. The oath is a Verizon platform that helps brands reach advertising goals. “From personalized experiences to new quality ad formats, there are some revolutionary new technologies available to connect brands more meaningfully with shoppers,” Martinez said after the panel. She added that personalization, brand loyalty, and technologies like AR and VR are very important.
While Augmented Reality is all about enhancing the customer experience for retailers, for brands it is all about boosting the level of engagement and interaction with their target audience, thus aiming for a different level of brand loyalty.
Imagine if your sportswear brand offers customers an option to just scan your products daily and get the updated athletic or sports news or tips on running. Well, then engagement with your consumer will definitely improve. Here we will see some brands that have successfully incorporated Augmented Reality into their regular marketing and branding strategies.
Marketing and Branding Campaigns that used Augmented Reality
2012 Starbucks Valentine’s Day Marketing Campaign: It permitted the consumers who had downloaded their AR app to scan the coffee cup to get exclusive romantic cards, which they could send out to that special someone, in their lives, while also providing an immersive and engaging experience for the customer. This highly successful campaign helped to drive huge traffic to the star bucks outlet.
2013 Coca-Cola Arctic Home Campaign
Coca-Cola and WWF teamed up together and came out with an augmented reality campaign to warn the public about global warming and the melting of arctic circles. With the help of AR, the campaign was made live at the London Science Museum, where the people were teleported to the Arctic Circle among polar bears, and they had a real-life experience of how the environment is facing danger. It made an immediate connection with the audience and achieved the aim, which was to create awareness and raise funds to help conserve the arctic homes.
Siemens came out with Augmented Reality Brochures
With the help of Augmented Reality, Siemens made it possible for its customers to experience the products in its real size, thus bringing in every detail and marketing its features most efficiently to the customers. They also made it possible for the user to interact with the gas hob knobs and experience its StepFlame Technology, without having the product in hand.
Nissan See the Unseen Campaign
Nissan with the aim to display its Intelligent Mobility Technology to consumers came out with the AR- marketing campaign. With the help of mobile devices, the company lets its consumers engage with the characters from the movie Star Wars: The Last Jedi, where they also educated the viewers about features of the car.
You will see that in most of these campaigns, Smartphone Camera plays a significant role.
It reiterates what Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap said. “The camera is evolving from being a barrier, separating users from the world to becoming an aperture, for users to explore the world.” With this camera marketing is set to take digital marketing and one such form of camera marketing that is making its presence known in advertising and branding sector, is Augmented Reality.
Wrap-Up: Companies realizing the potential have started to use AR in advertising increasingly. According to BCG Marketing Executive Benchmarking Study, January 2018; about 55% claimed to be currently using Augmented Reality Marketing. The marketers also agreed that with AR marketing, they witnessed a double-digit increase in brand awareness and customer loyalty.
Augray, catering to this rise in demand knows that ignoring AR for advertising is not an option, anymore. So, we provide cutting edge AR solution to brands that want to adopt Augmented Reality into their marketing strategies that aim to boost sales, brand awareness, and customer loyalty.
