Not a long time ago…
Growing up watching the Tv Anime DragonBall Z, I was always fascinated by the bad guys wearing a Head-Mounted Display or HMD with only one lens to either the left or right eye (Ever notice how the bad guys always have the best tech?). They could look at anyone and see their power level.
This was very cool and even today I still think that it would be a very cool tech to have. But one day I woke up and found that the tech I saw in my favorite Cartoon is already here and being used on a daily bases.
I was a little sad that I could not take a look at people on the street and see their power level but I could use it to see the prices of houses up for rent in some cases even navigate around the city and sometimes get extra information within selected stores. It’s not what I was hoping for but it is a great start.
Back to our times..
Brands could analyze audience insights and how consumers are interacting with their current campaigns, and based on those findings, strive to put consumers’ needs at the heart of their AR creations.
The success of a brand utilizing AR will ultimately be based on their ability to use data that evoke meaningful creativity and tells stories, truly prioritizing consumers’ needs and confronting the current frictions that stand in the way of a customer getting information or a product.
AR use case #1: Edit your world
AR offers personalization and creativity for users, allowing people to tinker with their selfies, voice and even merge the digital world with their physical one. With Snapchat, Google and Facebook using the technology, brands now have ease of access and endless opportunity, so the potential for the format to thrive is very promising.
While there is an obvious interest in AR from an entertainment standpoint, the true opportunity of AR is in its ability to provide real, practical value to people. Such as;
The shopping experience: By now most of us have heard about trying on cloths using an APP or selecting furniture and seeing how it looks in the living room. AR is allowing consumers to make more informed choices which in turn leads to better sales and an overall increase in customer satisfaction.
Remote support: Having the ability to receive detailed steps to fix issues from experts that are far away is a great way to make your clients happy. They know there is no long wait time plus it feels like you have a whole team in your corner and for technicians, this might just be the case when they are on the field in remote locations tackling a problem.
Content Consumption: Nothing beats being able to look at content and have all relevant content available to you displayed in the right places at the right time. With AR this not only becomes a reality to it is an integral part if the technology itself.
Adding Layers: Customers are different and each is looking for a particular something when they visit your brand, having AR layer varying levels of interactions with each product enables the customer to dive as deep into a product as they want.
But AR can also be used in indirect ways by associating certain AR activities, experience, and scenarios to a particular brand. Hence do not think it strange to find real-world brands in your next AR immersion.
The Advent of choice
Any new technology that can benefit brands and organization reach and interact with its customers in new and improved ways is always going to be sort after. In a consumer market driven world that we live in, each company will always try and outdo its rivals, but to the end user and us customers, it just means we have better choices.