5 Brilliant AR Applications
Thinking about Augmented Reality for brands is a lot like thinking about New Year’s Eve planning. It has a loyal but exacerbated fan base, has the potential to be incredible and momentous, and yet next year will ALWAYS be better.
AR has topped the ever-growing number of “Trends to watch out for” lists for as many years as we can remember. The potential was always known but poor execution, exorbitant costs of production and that slightly annoying initial stumbling block in shortening the user journey whilst creating parameters to determine a measurable ROI kept standing in the way. However, smarter phones, platform integration, production competition and 5G connection have put AR back in the spotlight.
With that in mind, here are some of our favourite AR executions down through the years…
1. DISNEY COLOURING BOOK:
Alright, we’re suckers for all things Disney. Who doesn’t love singing The Little Mermaid’s “Part Of Your World” loudly and out of tune as you butter your fifth slice of toast instead of having lunch? Just me then? Anywho, this colouring book app brilliant brings the classic kid’s time-killer to life in live 3D, mapping the colours as they are drawn on the paper. While it’s a standalone app with mapping detail built in, the user journey is longer, but parents are a target demographic that will go the extra mile for the novelty. You can easily imagine this type of application being brought to a graffiti activation on (what’s that word again?) STREEEEEEETTTTTT… *Not. Even. Sorry!
2. DEADPOOL 7-ELEVEN:
The Deadpool franchise has turned many heads with its various marketing stunts, from altering rows of DVD covers to include the hero in other titles, to fake trailers and even advertising itself as a romantic valentine’s day movie. This partnership with 7-eleven using Zappar and its own app as the gateway brought a year-long campaign of AR games to the convenience stores which drove mass footfall and pushed sales of various products like Slurpees and other diabetes-inducing sugary treats, all while promoting the masked anti-hero’s upcoming movie. What was great about the application was the repeatedly changing platform and games which refreshed the campaign and kept fans coming back for more.
3. BURGER KING BURNS MCDONALD’S
As we’ve noted many times before in the blog, Burger King is expert at trolling its fiercest rival McDonalds in every dimension. When we first saw this AR campaign explode into our collective news feeds we had to stand an applaud. Burger King created a visual recognition tool into its app which would recognise the famed yellow arches of Mickey D’s, then using AR, flame grill or “burn” the advertisement and reward the user with a free whopper. Whopper burn in every sense.
4. HOTSTEPPER / PENGUIN NAVI
Novelty has always been a huge factor in AR experiences, a bit of fun to keep you entertained for a few moments and something you might show to your friends for a laugh (Snapchat and Instagram lenses anyone?). Functionality however, breeds longevity and if you give people something that’s fun but also serves a helpful purpose then you’re on to a winner. One of our old favourites was “The Hotstepper” by nexus which was a wayfinding app in which you were guided to your destination by an underpant-clad and slightly rotund dancing character.
It was clear to see that AR could be applied to wayfinding apps with purpose and entertainment rolled into one. Another brilliant example was Penguin NAVI which prompted users to follow a waddle of penguins to Tokyo’s Sunshine Aquarium.
It’s seems odd to us that Google Maps took so long to apply this to its app but hey, better late than never right?! And now the tech is open to brands to manipulate at a much cheaper cost, so if you need to prompt prospective fans to go on a character led journey through an event or festival site for example, you can easily add a whole new dimension of activity for fans.
5. CHALK - VUFORIA
Those of you who have been foolish enough to purchase an elderly parent or relative a new piece of technology such as a smartphone, tablet or smart TV might like this one. In fact, you might love it. Chalk is an app that allows people to share AR doodles and notes on a video call. For example, your mother calls at 7.30am on Saturday morning to ask you how she programs her telly to record the final of Great British Bake Off the following Wednesday. Rather than spending the next 879,000 years talking her through the process step-by-step you can video call and literally draw on the buttons for her to follow. Now, obviously it has many more uses, especially in the creative sphere where tweaks and feedback are necessary part of design, or taking people through complicated collaborative projects, but that’s neither here nor there right?!