This is our final installment in our series this week on augmented reality. It’s all been fascinating and, indeed, very, very cool. So now to the practical side (Whoa there! Don’t worry. Just because we have to be practical doesn’t mean there’s no more coolness ahead!)

How can my company use all this fancy AR to make money?

Here are a few of the success stories. They all have one thing in common. They encourage interaction between the consumer and the product. We all know that means more sales.

• Sorso Tea in uses packaging and a large kiosk screen at the point of sale to attract customers. Hold the box of tea in front of the kiosk, and see yourself hold a scene that is appropriate for enjoying the product. The display in the store attracted both the young and old to see how this new packaging worked.

• The launching of a new Star Trek movie has been made even more of an event with the use of AR campaign. Watch 3-D trailers that respond to your commands.  There are three different views, which are seen when you turn the paper with the design on it.

• IKEA, the Swedish furniture store, has applied AR to encourage customers in Germany to try furniture pieces out in their home – using AR. The customer aims their webcam at their current furniture in their home, then they virtually place the prospective new furniture into the setting. They then are viewing the un-purchased piece on the computer screen, superimposed over the real furniture setting. The hope is, of course, that the customers will then confidently purchase the furniture, knowing what it will look like before they get it home.

• Molson Dry Beer has a fabulous shtick that gives me a sudden urge to go buy beer. When the beer is cold, the “partaker of the product” can hold the bottle itself up to the computer screen and see an animated 3D party message. It is the first use of a product itself to trigger an AR experience. Users can even save their 3D experience and upload it to add to others for total consumer engagement. Awesome.

Using Augmented Reality for Marketing

The Esquire Magazine augmented reality issue has been receiving its own kinda buzz on the web lately, and the question comes up – who took on designing the digital side of the equation? The Barbarian Group, who designed the AR elements, took on the project last spring. In an interview of Benjamin Palmer, CEO of The Barbarian Group, it was revealed that they felt Esquire Magazine was a good place to start with combining a magazine with digital enhancements. “We think the Esquire reader is a perfect audience for AR – generally well educated and likely to have a decent computer with a webcam.”

This brings out an good point for marketing professionals interested in incorporating AR into their marketing plans. Whether you are developing an app for a Smartphone, or creating an online AR experience, the rules of marketing don’t change. Remember your audience.

Here are a collection of ideas we saw on the web. Keep these in mind as you formulated your own marketing strategies as we enter the next decade.

Marketing Ideas for mobile AR applications:

Take and point your Smartphone down the street, at a product, or at a menu to see

• Business Cards hover over buildings or offices
• Coupons for your business or product appear when pointed
• Friends enter their favorite “hot spots” at certain locations, which you can view
• Event calendars show on the outside of your business.
• Absolut Vodka’s Drinkspiration app lets the users choose a drink while at a bar based on mood, weather, surrounding music, etc.

Other Marketing Ideas for AR

• Not everybody has a Smartphone, so
• Direct Mail pieces with the AR element on it, so when held in front of a webcam, a 3D image pops up.
• Retail stores that have packaging that shows the 3D assembled toy when held to the webcam

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Previous Blogs:

Augmented Reality is Virtually Here

Esquire Magazine Demonstrates the Coolness of Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality for Your Phone