After surpassing the number of daily Twitter users, seeing more engagement than Facebook and becoming the biggest US mobile game in history, Pokémon Go undoubtedly has the world talking.
For those who have not read or heard about the game, Pokémon Go is a free mobile app that uses your phone’s GPS to enable the digital you to move around and find a virtual Pokémon. The augmented-reality aspect of the game displays the Pokémon on your screen on top of what is actually in front of you in real life. The interactive feature of the app allows individuals to engage like never before, all while operating wirelessly and integrating into players’ daily lives. Snapchat is another recent successful example of augmented reality. The mobile app’s new filters use augmented reality by locating an object in the real world, typically an individual’s face, and displaying a character on top of that object – as it appears in real time. If you open your mouth or lift your eyebrows the filter triggers a new display or special effect to appear on your face.
The success of Pokémon Go and Snapchat is no mystery, and we should anticipate more applications of augmented reality (AR) to surface in company marketing strategies and advertising campaigns. Oculus, with its virtual reality (VR) goggles, found early success and opened the magical door to the world of VR for many executives and gamers alike. Although VR and AR are not new concepts, today’s technology has increased the frequency of use as well as the potential of these realities to evolve outside of the gaming realm. This is spurring executives to take a hard look at the future of VR/AR in their companies and establish whether or not incorporating AR or VR will help them stay ahead of the competition.
In order to integrate virtual reality or augmented reality into your marketing portfolio, it is important to understand what they are and whether or not this strategy will help achieve your company’s communication and businesses objectives. Tech Times describes VR as the creation of a simulated world that users can interact with by wearing a special helmet or goggles; AR is the blending of virtual reality with real life, creating a hybrid world that anyone with a smartphone can access.
A more important difference between the two is that AR is a more social experience where users are able to interact with virtual contents in the real world. As illustrated with Pokémon Go and Snapchat’s filters, what you see on the screen appears according to where you are located and how you are moving. This ability to explore, experience and engage is where AR has an advantage over VR.
For many companies, increasing engagement with key audiences is a chief communication objective. Early adopters that integrate AR will not only innovate numerous opportunities for customers to interact with the company brand and product, they will also generate news opportunities to showcase the creative ways they are able to harness AR into their marketing mix.
Once companies catch on, the number and variety of AR apps will only continue to increase. In 2012, there were 118 million AR apps downloaded. By 2017, that number is predicted to jump to 3.5 billion. The potential is clearly there, but what remains to be seen are the ways these companies will choose to implement this booming technology. Aside from the Pokémon Go and Snapchat examples, additional usages of augmented reality are appearing in:
- Training courses and education
- Map services
- Digital museum tours
- Online shopping
Going forward, it will be interesting to see how companies implement augmented and virtual realities to create buzz around their products and engage with their customers.
Is your company brainstorming how to integrate AR and VR into marketing or advertising campaigns? What results do you anticipate from these efforts? We would love to hear about it in the comments section!