Augmented Reality is the new digital kid on the block. Yet another of those fancy buzzwords, it is heralded as changing the face of digital marketing, and of bringing together offline and online like never before. It will, they say, change everything.

So, what actually is Augmented Reality (or AR), and should your business be doing it?

Augmented Reality (AR) is a term for the process of augmenting or supplementing real-life environments with computer-generated sensory input. In short, it is about changing and adding to the world we see through a tablet or mobile screen, using the power of digital technology.

Examples that you may come across in the real world include:

Highlighting tourist destinations if you scan the horizon (you’ll find this in apps such as LastMinute.com)
Animating imagery on a printed advert to play videos or tell stories
Playing music or a soundtrack through your phone when you scan a billboard advert in a bus station
Changing advert copy or content to match the location or other details of the person viewing it

Generally, AR works by asking you to install an app on your mobile phone, or sometimes on your tablet device. This app can either be a dedicated app – such as an app by a travel company that is designed to provide Augmented Reality on a specific set of areas – or it can be a general AR app, such as Blippar or Aurasma. These apps aren’t for the specific company – instead, companies pay to be able to use their app, because uptake is already higher and they have the app already installed on lots of people’s phones.

To illustrate:

In option 1, we want to use a travel company’s app to see what there is to do in a city. We install the travel company’s app, and it gives us the option to browse a list of nearby activities using a list or to use their AR functionality. The AR functionality lets us hold our camera phones up to the horizon, and the app overlays the visual we see by labelling the activities over the real work
In option 2, we are looking at a billboard advert displayed in a bus shelter. The advert instructs us to use AR app Blippar to see additional ad content. We either install the dedicated Blippar app or ideally, we already have it on our phones from a previous encounter. We then activate the Blippar app and hold it up to the advert, which displays as an animated advert or even a game on our phone screens, overlaying the static advert.

Making sense so far?

The general process to enjoy the benefits of AR are to install the app on your mobile device, scan the media, and then experience whatever Augmented Reality is programmed onto that media. The aim then is to interact with the AR and experience a real benefit from using it.

We believe that there is a golden rule in digital marketing when it comes to deciding what products and technology you should embrace, and that rule is this: Only bother if the technology adds value.

Now, that value could be for your business, or it could be for your customers. Whichever way, however, there should be a real benefit or reason behind any new steps you take.

It is no different with Augmented Reality. It’s a new technology, and without fail new technology means two things. Firstly, there will be a lot of gimmicks and fun ideas out there, many of which won’t actually benefit anyone beyond the first “Ooooh”. Secondly, new technology is always more expensive for the first adopters, so you need to use it wisely and use it well to ensure that you get something positive out of it.

Now, we don’t want to go into too much detail about our AR ideas, but let us break it out for you into two different areas – benefiting the customers, and benefiting your business. Hopefully this will give you a few ideas, as well as getting you thinking about whether AR is right for your business – or whether it will be right for you a few months down the line.

AR – Benefiting Your Customers

What do the customers in your showroom or on your forecourt need? Generally in the automotive industry, you will find that they want information. The difference is that whilst some people walking around a dealership will be happy to chat to a dealer, others would rather be left alone to find the information out for themselves. Augmented Reality can be used to facilitate this, probably by giving them the means to scan certain car features to access videos, explanations and facts and figures. It’s that “Silent Salesman” that’s been popping up in car dealer marketing over the past couple of years, and here the salesman is equipped with much more compelling information than a print out in a window.

Of course, this sort of benefit isn’t only added by AR. You could accompany cars with tablet applications featuring all the information your AR tagging would – and this might be a cheaper option at the moment. It comes down to whether the wow factor is important to ensure that your dealership stands out from your competitors.

AR – Benefitting Your Business

Whilst there are obvious business benefits to be had from empowering and informing your customers (more sales, for one!), there are ways that AR can help your business more directly too. Whether that’s spreading the workload of the frazzled dealer on the showroom floor, who is trying to help all customers at once, or through making a process easier.

It’s not strictly AR in the purest sense, but products such as CogCast allow customers to text themselves the details of a car, whilst also meaning the dealers can provide a better servicing by texting or emailing details over to customers whilst they are on the phone with them. Or how about an application running on an iPad that overlays an “ideal” car image over the top of the car you are photographing, ensuring that used car photography standards are consistent and up to scratch on your website? These are all ways that AR and advanced digital technology can actually make your life simpler.

Do any of these ideas sound like they might be useful for selling cars, vans or trucks? Augmented Reality may just be starting out, but it sure gives us a lot to think about – and it can influence our existing products and technology too.

augmented reality

What Is Augmented Reality?