Seeing the Realities of Augmented Reality

In another example, social campaigns and contests “could be enhanced by allowing users to pose with 3-D characters or products and post pictures online,” Wallin says.

Although they agree that augmented reality has enormous potential to enhance marketing campaigns, experts caution that the technology can easily become a negative.

“The first step should be to challenge any idea proposal. Try to see if there’s a way for the idea to work without augmented reality. If it can work without augmented reality, skip it,” Berkowitz says.

“Often, the best times to experiment with new technologies are also the best times to be the most critical,” he continues. “Make any augmented reality proposal work harder.”

Abbruzzese adds that augmented reality content “has to be novel, interesting, and well-made.” Marketers, he maintains, should not produce augmented reality content “just for the sake of doing something hot and new.”

Abbruzzese says that as augmented reality technology matures, low-effort content will no longer be carried by novelty—the actual quality of the content will matter significantly. High-quality augmented reality marketing content will have a “greater positive impact” than traditional content, while low-quality augmented reality marketing content will have a “greater negative impact” than traditional content.

“Now still might not be the time for every marketer to come up with an augmented reality idea. Every pizza restaurant in the neighborhood isn’t going to need to show what virtual toppings look like. As terrible an idea as that might be, there will be many thousands of ideas that will be even worse as the bandwagon effect happens,” Berkowitz warns.

Aliberti agrees, saying that augmented reality “can go from new and fun to just gimmicky very quickly.”

Nevertheless, experts maintain that augmented reality is a great way to create a sense of delight for customers. They also lay out guidelines for marketers to follow in crafting strong augmented reality content.

Wallin notes that augmented reality “lets people see and do things that would be impossible or impractical in real life” and “gives people access to information without having to take their focus off of the real world.” So if a marketer is aiming to do either of those things with a campaign, he says, an augmented reality component could be a good fit.

Pullens says that marketers need to “take time to think about the problem they need to solve and how augmented reality is going to enhance their strategy.” They need to consider whether certain content will increase engagement and whether augmented reality can enhance that content, transforming what would otherwise be a one-dimensional experience.

“As soon as any organization officially gets into the augmented reality landscape, it’s all-or-nothing,” Pullens says. “That means if they go into it half-heartedly, it will likely come across as a half-hearted effort to their consumers. Augmented reality requires a big investment and forward-thinking decision making, so companies need to weigh the pros and cons before getting started, while assessing how big of an impact augmented reality will make on the business.”

Reducing friction is also crucial. Berkowitz cautions that despite augmented reality being natively built into Apple and Google devices, there will still likely be a long learning curve before consumers are comfortable enough with the technology. He notes that considering your target audiences is a crucial factor to success: Younger consumers will take the time to play with different features, for instance, but older ones will likely need more convincing that the effort is worth their time.

Marketers “need to understand what the best use cases are for their customers,” Aliberti says. “Technology leaders such as Apple and Google are about to put augmented reality capabilities into the hands of millions of users. This is a great opportunity no brand should miss. There are endless opportunities still to be uncovered in this field.” And the key to uncovering them, Aliberti adds, will be experimentation.

For Pullens, that’s what makes the future of augmented reality so exciting. “Figuring out how to apply the technology in meaningful ways across marketing campaigns will be an interesting challenge to watch unfold.”

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Assistant Editor Sam Del Rowe can be reached at sdelrowe@infotoday.com.

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