If you’re looking for new innovative additions to your 2021 marketing plan, then Augmented Reality marketing should be included this year. It’s proven customers respond better to engaging content. Content they can interact and connect with.

How Augmented Reality marketing can work for you

The limit to AR marketing is within the mind of the creator. We’ve seen some amazing example of engaging Augmented Reality content in 2020. So let’s just take a look at some of the best use-cases we’ve seen in 2020, to inspire your creative mind for 2021.

Web AR Out-of-Home Advertising

Popular drinks brand BON V!V Spiked Seltzer recently launched their Out-of-Home Augmented Reality marketing campaign throughout the West Coast of the America. Outdoor advertising printed murals were placed around Los Angeles and San Diego. This was a web-based Augmented Reality powered campaign which meant that users did not need to download an app to view the experience, and was compatible across iOS and Android devices. The murals featured an activation QR code, so that passers-by could take this mobile device out, point the mobile camera at the QR code and watch the experience come to life in front of their eyes.

Once scanned, each user was given the option to either 'Find nearest store' or 'Purchase online' to encourage consumers to purchase. This is a very clear example of utilising Augmented Reality to drive direct sales of a product. This campaign gets a 5 star rating for both creativity and driving key business objectives.

Augmented Reality Print Flyers

Creating a digital channel where one previously did not exist is an impressive thing to do. Doing it in a practical and useful way is borderline ground-breaking. Augmented Reality gives the user the ability to engage with the print on a deeper level, all the while providing the brand full analytics on the interaction performance in the back end.

One great example of this we saw in 2019 was from Fashion wear brand Boot Barn with their ‘Wonderwest’ launch using Augmented Reality printed flyers delivered to customers doors. Customers were able to point their mobile device at the flyer to watch the Wonderwest promotional video play. This used Augmented Reality Image Tracking so when the customer moved the card around, the video sticks to the perspective of the card creating a really impressive visual. Take a look at it in action here:

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Augmented Reality e-Commerce

There are a variety of ways Web AR can be used for the purposes of e-Commerce. It could be a ‘virtual try-on’ of a product, in which the user can see what a product, say for example a pair of sunglasses, would look like on them. Another way is to lead a fun experience for the user to take part in and place a Call-to-Action button seamlessly into the experience to encourage click-throughs to the e-com store.

An example of this experience-led angle can seen from Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The potential customer is given the option to be transported to either a pristine beach surrounded by palm trees, a beautiful woodland scene or to the white mountains of the alps. HPE used this experience to promote their new product, HPE Primera. You can watch the experience here:

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What can we expect from brands in 2021?

More ingenuity, more creativity, better experiences and shed load of ROI rich campaigns. 2020 provided just a taste of what is possible with this marketing technology. Agencies like Aircards are continually pushing the boundaries on what’s possible and it’s exciting to see. For smaller scale, print-based AR experiences, QuickXR is launching their Augmented Reality creator tool which gives people with no coding ability to use their visual designer to create AR-enabled print designs in minutes.

Update: 12th March 2020, WebAR will see a rise in adoption from 2020 onwards. Web-based Augmented Reality is seeing a boom in a multitude of industries including Marketing, Outdoor Advertising and more. If you'd like to read about the top 5 Web AR Examples of 2021, read about What is WebAR, or head over to the Aircards blog to read more.

If you’re a brand, business or marketing manager and you’re considering Augmented Reality for 2020, we’d recommend heading over to aircards.co to chat with their expert team and start brainstorming what your campaign could be.

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