Augmented Advertising

The first attempts at Virtual Reality were as early as the 19th century. These attempts came in the form of 360-degree murals intended to make viewers feel as though they were present in the event being depicted. We have obviously come a long way since then. Now, 14 million AR and VR devices are expected to be sold in 2019. Currently, there are three different categories to this technology virtual reality (VR) augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR).

VR is a technology that completely immerses a user in a digital world.

AR is placing computer-generated images on the world around the user.

MR is a mixture of the two.

In my research, I came upon 3 common applications where VR AR and MR are currently being used. There are certainly more possibilities especially for non-marketing Different companies are using different platforms to different levels of success.

Showrooming/Testing Out/

This is maybe the biggest and most common uses currently, and for good reason. This allows consumers to experiment with things like makeup, clothing, or almost any product in order to see if you like it before you actually buy it.

Who’s doing it well?

IKEA's new app allows users to place furniture in their actual homes before they buy it. This offers a huge value to consumers and could easily motive someone to use IKEA instead of another competitor.

Entertainment and advertising

Entertainment is a huge part of this kind of technology. Everything from gaming to sports to porn has been affected. These are all new and exciting places where advertisers can begin to place advertisements or product placements (yes, even in porn).

Who’s doing it well?

Pokémon Go was probably the most successful implementation of AR with an impressive number of downloads totaling over one billion. So, it was no surprise in 2016 when the CEO announced that he intended to allow retailers to sponsor locations on the Pokémon Go app.

Enhance Advertising

Creatively using this technology to make ads more interactive offers a great opportunity for marketers to make their ads more effective. The more engaged a viewer is with an ad the more likely they are to remember and actually be motivated by it. VR AR and MR all allow for ads to do just that.

Who’s doing it well?

In Austria, the walking dead placed an AR ad in a bus stop designed to scare bus riders with videos of zombies smacking against the glass. This would certainly be an extremely memorable and engaging ad.

Of course, there are infinite different ways that marketers can use this technology, but these are some of the most common. I believe that this technology will only continue to grow in the future and with it, the marketing possibilities will only grow with it.