Advertising and augmented reality

Augmented reality (AR) and advertising are now regularly combined: typically using a smartphone and glasses to combine a real image and a virtual one. The technology has aroused a degree of interest, but has usually been little more than an exercise in brand awareness. Snapchat’s filters, or lenses, have enjoyed some success with its users: more than 70 million people use Snapchat filters daily. At the same time, some companies have created economic models based on AR and advertising, for example sponsorship or more recently, e-commerce through Shoppable AR.

At the same time as advertisers are getting hip to augmented reality some of the big internet and e-commerce players such as Facebook, Amazon or Google have come up with the idea of creating ads where you can try a product virtually, projecting it on to your image.

Following up on its Snapchat experience, Facebook has announced the launch of its AR Studio for developers, along with an initial series of campaigns with companies like Michael Kors, a brand it already has links to and that was a pioneer in advertising on Instagram back in November 2013. Over the summer, Sephora, also no stranger to experimenting with new technologies, along with other brands, will join in, as will Instagram. Google and Amazon have similar agendas for their advertisers, suggesting we could be in for a deluge of these types of ads.

Anyone who has tried a Snapchat filter will know that AR is about more than superimposing one image on another and more to do with creating a dynamic image that allows movement, that provides a certain experience to the user, or even that allows a certain ideal version of the garment or accessory, an image that is presumably more attractive than the real one — in the same way that the combination of lighting and mirrors in the changing rooms of some stores provide a more flattering image.

The interesting thing about all this is not so much the use of AR as such, but the approach to add something to its use as a brand awareness tool to explore more advanced stages of marketing, closer to making the sale. Instead of serving only to remind people or raise brand perception, these new initiatives are designed to assist in the purchase process, to reduce uncertainties, allowing consumers to see a product superimpose on an image of their face or body. Amazon has already considered similar initiatives for its own fashion brands by acquiring Body Labs, an application that creates a scan of the body by using a computer-s webcam or smartphone camera, calculating your body size, which will provide greater certainty at the time of purchase, reducing the need to send products back and even the possibility of logistics of always onerous returns, but also the aforementioned use of augmented reality to test products, or even tailor-made clothing.

On a screen near you soon…

(En espa?ol, aquí)