Augmented Reality: Life a “bit” better

Augmented reality is a very hot area where only a few, very cutting edge marketers are participating.  What is it? AR adds a layer of real-time meta-data on top of the world around you using your mobile phone’s camera. You point the camera at a location or object and get a display of information related to those things/places.

For example, UrbanSpoon on iPhone recently added AR which shows an overlay of restaurants near the user’s location. They appear as bright circles that are sized and colored differently based on distance from the user and the % of users who “like” that restaurant.

Another example is Layar, on iPhone and Google’s Android, which shows Wikipedia entries, bars, nightlife and Twitter users nearby. Just point the camera at your surroundings and you get a visual overlay of relevant data.  For more examples see this article about six hot AR apps.  

AR for Marketing

So what do marketers need to know about AR? Christine Perey, a world-leading authority on AR and owner of PEREY Research & Consulting in Montreux, Switzerland shared her perspective on why and how to integrate augmented reality.

Marketing Use Cases

1.  “Use AR to bring people to your place of business”

• Use location-based/GPS + compass type of AR
• One of the first examples of this was the ING bank in Holland which released a small app for Android which permits people to find the nearest ATM. This work/project became the pilot for Layar.

2.  “Use AR to offer a useful service and get brand recognition”

• In this case, a company might sponsor some functional service and just put a brand/company look/feel on the app to engage new prospects and to build loyalty with existing customers
  • A layer in Layar, for example, or a stand alone application which offers value, such as where to take recycling, or discover more about day care centers in your neighborhood, etc.

3.  “Use AR to feature a product such as a piece of furniture”

• IKEA’s application is a good example of this, which lets you put a piece of their furniture in your room to see how it will look and fit 

Reach

Ms. Perey points out that one consideration is that mobile AR is currently largely limited to smartphones with narrow distribution.

However, she thinks that “while in the large scheme this is quite small they are the best people to target with marketing because they have demonstrated that they value high technology and are interested in quality, etc. so they have, in effect, pre-qualified themselves as spenders.”

• By the end of 2009 there will probably not be more than about 600,000 of these people worldwide, but there is/will be a hockey stick in 2010 and provides progressive marketers a good window to get experience with mobile AR.
• If mobile AR is really too narrow, a company can use a code or natural feature recognition to do AR on a PC using a webcam. Esquire magazine’s December Augmented Reality issue is a good example.

Execution

How can marketers integrate AR? Ms. Perey shares that there are surprisingly low barriers to entry.

“If a company just wants to experiment by putting a layer into Layar or making a small application for use in another browser (metaio, GeoVector and Mobilizy are other companies also providing browsers for Mobile AR) then the barrier to entry is relatively low for someone who has HTML/XML experience.”  

• These browsers have toolkits and APIs which are designed to be accessible to non-technical people, but do require some use of a graphical programming environment. They are limited to iPhone and Android handsets. Nokia also has an environment for its Point and Find technology platform which is on many of the advanced Nokia handsets.
• Development for one of the above browser environments depends on the complexity of the data/application and the condition of the initial data. It can be less than a day or around a week to develop.

Cost is also a low barrier. All the browser providers are trying to get the most/best content so many of the basic options are free or low cost.

• There can be higher cost features/options for richer stand-alone applications. Some have said Esquire magazine’s December AR issue was a six figure investment.

With so much potential, AR is an area that proactive and creative marketers will want to fully explore.  Think about the opportunity to map physical products with their online information (another google product perchance?) or even hijacking another company’s brand by creating AR experiences on their product packaging.  Let the games begin…

3 Responses to “Augmented Reality: Life a “bit” better”

1. Twitted by GeoVector says:

   December 2, 2009 at 2:05 pm

   [...] This post was Twitted by GeoVector [...]
2. Lola Raciti says:

   March 16, 2010 at 11:19 pm

   I enjoyed reading such a great article. Such insighful writing is rare these days. Informed comment like this has to be applauded. I’ll certainly be looking in on this blog again in the near future!
3. Marketing says:

   March 24, 2010 at 7:30 am

   thanks !! very helpful post!