The recent appearance of new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning or even live videos through social networks, is causing the most cutting-edge marketing agencies to be experiencing a moment of change in their strategies.
These tools, many still in development, provide numerous solutions when optimizing the impact and benefits derived from marketing campaigns that explore these possibilities, especially when it comes to becoming known and differentiating yourself from your competitors.
Due to its relative novelty, for many marketing teams and advertising agencies, Augmented Reality (AR) is still not the first option on their list of these new technologies to implement in their marketing policies.
However, it is beginning to discover the great potential that AR has to strengthen the engagment or relationship with customers with the brand and its reputation thanks to the impact it generates on the user experience, for which we are witnessing a use growing of this tool.
Today we will take a tour of some of the augmented reality campaigns that large companies have developed as part of their brandin strategy:
IKEA
Furniture buyers may like the look of a nightstand or sofa on display, but they often wonder how it will really fit into their home.
To solve this problem, the multinational IKEA last year presented an AR application, aimed above all at e-commerce buyers, which allows viewing how the catalog items would look in their homes. Thanks to the quality of development, integration into the environment is very realistic, being able, for example, to walk around the furniture to observe it from all points of view.
This application offers numerous advantages to the Swedish brand, since it manages to simplify the purchase process by avoiding customer trips to the store, improves its brand image and also, thanks to the novelty of this campaign, achieved a great media impact worldwide .
LACOSTE
The French sportswear company has been one of the pioneers in the development of AR experiences that allow users to try on virtual garments taken from their catalog.
The operation is as follows: when the customer is inside a physical store, they are located on a graphic area installed inside them and access the app previously downloaded to their phone.
The app allows the buyer to customize, for example, the size of the shoe to show them what it would look like with them on, in addition to showing additional details about the product.
Lacoste’s AR application has not only enriched the experience of its customers, but has also reduced the burden of personnel in its stores.
TESCO
For several years, the British brand Tesco has been using augmented reality as a tool to help modernize its brand and reach younger consumers.
An example is Tesco AR Discover, an application that, among other possibilities, brings to life the products of the Disney Frozen brand, for sale in its stores. With it, young and old can navigate a Frozen sticker book and use the AR app to overlay children’s selfies with their favorite characters from the movie.
Tesco AR Discover helped drive additional traffic to its stores, and especially increased visibility on social media as children routinely shared their selfies on Instagram and Facebook.
KIDS BIC
The Kids line, from the well-known BIC brand, has been associated with fun and creativity since its birth when it comes to marketing products such as colored pencils and coloring books.
In 2016 they presented the DrawyBook AR application, which allows children to color different sheets that later come to life in augmented reality through a Smartphone or Tablet that identifies the drawing. Plus, kids can add additional colors, shapes, and customizations to create different alternatives from their illustrations. The BIC DrawyBook is a great example of how brands can leverage AR to create fun and interactive experiences for the younger audience.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
The New York Times has been one of the media that has bet the most on the so-called “immersive journalism”, a new concept that thanks to virtual and augmented reality and 360º video, «puts» the user in the place of the facts so that you can experience them in the first person.
Within this use of immersive technologies last year, spectators at the Winter Olympics in South Korea were able to get closer to the star athletes competing in the USA team. USA NYT’s AR app allows athletes from disciplines such as figure skating and ice hockey to be seen in your living room while overlapping informational panels offer added information on technical issues. For example, a figure skater could appear on the screen to explain how he performs certain skating maneuvers, while in parallel the viewer watched the event live.
It is a clear example of how this technology will be an element of change in the coming years in the world of media and sports-related brands.
LIDL
Recently at Isostopy we dealt with the technological development in augmented reality of the “Seas forever” project.
It is a pioneering marketing experience in our country, which was presented in March 2018 at the Islazul Shopping Center in Madrid as part of the campaign by the international NGO Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Spain and Supermarkets Lidl for the promoting sustainable consumption of fish and increasing consumer awareness of the need to protect marine resources.
During the game, users learn to differentiate which fish to buy in stores thanks to a fun activity in which the species caught with the MSC badge add points while the rest subtract.
The experience culminates with a winner and the possibility of posing in front of the screen to take a photo that will be shared on social networks with the hashtags of the event.
For the development of the game, various species of fish were faithfully modeled from photographic images and positioning markers were created including the logos of the clients, successfully combining marketing and usability.
Result of the experience: In just one weekend, more than 1,000 people participated in the game, and another 4,000 witnessed it live. It also had a great impact on social networks. For example, the video of the event, hosted on Lidl’s Facebook profile, had more than 50,000 visits in just two weeks.
