The essence of AR advertising is a gaming carnival?

The "Five Blessings" campaign held by Alipay last year was very popular. Five years ago, Google launched Project Glass. These two seemingly unrelated things are actually closely related. At their core, they both use AR technology. The booming AR technology has spawned many industries, and AR advertising is one of them. The scope of AR advertising is becoming wider and wider. There are relatively mature cases in industries such as automobiles , finance, catering, and home furnishings. So, in today's world where TV advertising and Internet advertising are still very popular, what exactly does AR advertising bring to consumers? Can AR advertising achieve a counterattack in the advertising industry with numerous models?

BAT enters AR advertising, capital enthusiasm remains high

In recent years, AR technology has attracted much attention, and its huge market development prospects have ignited investment enthusiasm. A report recently released by International Data Corporation (IDC) stated that the augmented reality (AR) software market reached US$2.13 billion in 2016 and will reach US$35.22 billion by 2022, with a compound growth rate of 57.36% from 2016 to 2022.

AR advertising, thanks to “AR”, also took a speedboat ride. In January 2017, Baidu announced the establishment of an AR laboratory in Beijing. Its initial research and development content was to use AR technology to provide advertising services to generate revenue. Alipay also announced in April this year that it would cooperate with a well-known domestic AR advertising solution company to enhance the attractiveness of AR advertising in the Alipay interface, and Tencent QQ also held an "Red Packets Falling from the Sky" AR advertising campaign last year. It can be seen that BAT is very optimistic about the prospects of AR advertising.

At the same time, capital's intimacy with AR advertising is heating up. Recently, Swedish advertising technology company Advrty received a seed round of financing of 5 million Swedish kronor (about 570,000 US dollars). There are also many financing events for domestic AR advertising companies such as Shi+AR and Yishi Interactive.

The essence of AR advertising is a gaming carnival?

The original meaning of AR is augmented reality, and AR advertising generally interacts with reality through the combination of hardware and software to promote products and their concepts. As a new generation star in the advertising industry, AR advertising has become popular mainly due to the following four reasons.

1. Strong interactivity and fun

AR advertisements are often presented to consumers in the form of games or stories. For example, Coca-Cola recently partnered with Spotify, the world's largest streaming music platform, and used AR technology to design a cola that can play music. Users only need to open the AR software and aim it at a specially made Coca-Cola bottle to make a music player appear. Combining products with music and creating interesting interactive content embodies great creativity.

AR advertising can start from creative thinking, fully liberate the senses of participants, and allow participants to freely interact with their favorite content. It has to be said that AR advertising is actually more like introducing products to consumers in a game.

2. Targeted user delivery

For special products, AR advertising focuses more on the product or service itself, and presents the product's features or service process to consumers through AR technology, so AR advertising can attract specific consumer groups. For example, IKEA has applied AR technology to home furnishing selection. Customers can use handheld AR devices to DIY home furnishing styles in an empty space. This process can fully meet consumers' personalized needs for home furnishings, and the users who experience it are generally potential users with the purchasing power to match the products.

Another example is AR advertising for games. During the Chinajoy exhibition, Perfect World launched a large-screen interactive dress-up game, where players of Perfect World games can simulate dressing up according to their own preferences. Here, Perfect World's target customers are perfect game players, but when experiencing AR advertising, non-gamers or other game players generally do not participate in the process, so on the other hand, AR advertising is more accurate than other advertising when it is delivered.

3. Popularization of presentation methods

AR advertising is generally divided into two types in terms of presentation devices: one is the smartphone or tablet brought by the participants themselves, and the other is the human-computer interaction device provided by the event organizer.

In the first case, everyone with a smartphone is a potential audience for AR advertising. Nowadays, the penetration rate of smartphones is already quite high. Once consumers see novel AR advertisements, it is easy for them to take out their smartphones to participate in the activities.

For example, ZTE Mobile had previously placed AR advertisements for its new phones on the front page of newspapers and outdoor large screens. By simply scanning the QR code on the newspaper or outdoor large screen with a smartphone, ZTE Mobile's AR creative advertisements would appear, and many passers-by also took out their phones to experience the fun of AR advertising.

Consumers can experience AR advertising anytime and anywhere, and AR advertising only needs to "sit back and wait" to attract more participants, because the entrance to AR advertising is through consumers.

The second type of human-computer interactive device uses people as the interface of AR advertising and realizes the presentation of AR advertising through real-time interaction between people and devices. For example, in the "Cattle Raising Interactive" game that Yili previously launched offline, participants entered the cattle raising interface by scanning the QR code on the screen and could choose a variety of forage to feed the cattle. The entire process was also synchronized in real time on the outdoor large screen.

It can be said that people and smartphones have become the only entrance to AR advertising, which also proves the popularization of AR advertising presentation.

4. Break away from tradition and define new meaning of advertising

Traditional paper advertisements have a single form of expression and limited promotional effects. Although television advertisements and Internet advertisements are rich in content, they lack interactivity and can only unilaterally instill advertising information into consumers.

The value of traditional advertising is losing its luster with the advent of a multi-dimensional world. AR advertising defines the new connotation of advertising, refreshes people's inherent perception of advertising, makes the relationship between advertising and consumers no longer unfamiliar or even antagonistic, and allows consumers to learn and understand advertising in a friendly way.

This is why more and more traditional advertisers prefer AR advertising, such as in the film , finance and other industries. The existence of AR advertising is to make these products more concrete so that consumers can have a deeper understanding of the products.

In short, AR advertising is changing people's views on traditional advertising with its technological advantages, and the interactivity and fun of AR advertising itself is more like a game carnival.

“No one is perfect”, AR advertising also has obvious shortcomings

Although AR advertising has good development prospects, in terms of advertising placement locations, Internet, television and other channels still have advantages. In addition, AR advertising has the following disadvantages:

1. AR advertising has temporal and spatial effects

AR advertising is different from outdoor advertising, and also different from movable newspaper or multimedia advertising. It is essentially an activity, and this activity requires delivery at a specific location and time. Therefore, it can only affect consumers through specified processes within the specified time. Therefore, AR advertising has strict requirements on the delivery area.

For example, the creative interactive subway game launched by Master Kong in Xujiahui, Shanghai, can only be participated by people who pass by the activity area in the subway, and such advertisements only work during peak traffic hours. Once the traffic is insufficient, the attractiveness of AR advertisements may drop to zero.

Outdoor advertising is not affected by time or traffic, and can be placed in the wilderness or in busy urban areas, which is very flexible. Multimedia and television advertising are also delivered at all times and locations.

Therefore, AR advertising only has a strong initiative for consumers within a certain period of time, and there is a desolate feeling of "it's too late to wait". AR advertising is time-sensitive, and AR advertising that can produce immediate results is "orthodox". AR advertising that has no obvious effect will definitely be eliminated.

2. Long project duration

An advertisement for an air-conditioning product can appear in a newspaper with just one sentence after being printed in batches, and a multimedia advertisement of a few seconds can be put on TV and the Internet with a little production. The efficiency of traditional advertising from production to delivery is obvious.

But AR advertising is different. AR advertising is actually a project. Every step requires precise planning, and the duration of the AR advertising project depends on specific requirements. Generally speaking, the AR advertising project cycle is unstable and may take several months. There are many reasons for this, including the need for in-depth understanding of the product to form ideas, on-site shooting, software design, model building, etc. But for mature and experienced AR advertising production companies, this may be relatively easy.

In addition to the production of AR ads, placement is also a test of patience. For example, Blizzard previously placed AR ads in multiple offline locations for nearly a month to promote the Heroes of the Storm game. Large-scale offline placement and promotion also have strict funding requirements.

After augmented reality, how does AR advertising "augment itself"

AR advertising has already caught up in some areas, but the "cumbersomeness" of AR advertising in terms of timeliness and duration has become obvious. In the current era of "many competitors" in advertising forms such as TV advertising and online advertising, how to achieve "overtaking on the curve" is a challenge facing AR advertising. Fortunately, AR advertising still has a "natural barrier" in the form of technical barriers, so if AR advertising wants to "enhance itself", it can start from two points.

1. Creativity is the “smart pill” of AR advertising

No matter what kind of advertisement it is, creativity comes first. Creativity is the core of advertising and the key to attracting consumers. A creative advertisement will be deeply rooted in people's hearts and will also bring huge profits in a short period of time. Similarly, AR advertising should start from a certain perspective of the product and combine creativity to develop advertising content that is both spreadable and interesting.

KFC once incorporated the well-known IP "Magic Elf" into its product marketing . After purchasing designated products, consumers can scan the code with their mobile phones to connect to the AR scene. Incorporating fun animated characters into food packaging and the dining process can enhance consumers’ experience and have a positive effect on food and brands.

The VR advertisement previously launched by Lynx perfume gave people a unique experience. Participants only needed to stand in the designated AR area to see the angels beside them on the big screen. Therefore, through creativity, AR advertising can easily "attract" consumers, and products and concepts can also be instilled subtly.

2. Improving the quality of software and hardware is the "power pill" for AR advertising

AR advertising is a system whose presentation is achieved through the collaboration of numerous software and hardware. Autohome has previously added AR functionality to its APP, and its AR technology is reflected in the ability to place virtual model vehicles in real scenes to see which vehicle better matches the surrounding environment. Here, 3D modeling technology is the key. If the model is rough, the experience will be poor when it is integrated with the environment, thus losing its value of existence. So, in this case, the quality of 3D modeling technology directly determines the user's AR experience.

In addition, technologies such as 3D object recognition and cloud recognition are also key to the success of AR advertising. For example, the puzzle game "Monument Valley" once launched an AR fun advertisement. Through AR scanning and content presentation functions, the fairy-tale game scenes were more realistically presented to every player.

AR advertising must take into account every sub-aspect of software and hardware in order to achieve "self-enhancement".

The future is limitless, and AR advertising will also usher in two new development trends

With the development of various technologies, future AR advertising will inevitably apply newer technologies to the process of augmented reality. Therefore, AR advertising will have two development trends.

1. Interactivity upgrade

Current AR advertising is still limited to the interaction between people and the environment, and people and devices. With the development and application of new technologies, human interaction will become part of the interactive mode of AR advertising. At present, MR devices that integrate AR and VR have been born, which means that people in the future may meet in the game world, thus generating more interactive content. Therefore, upgrading interactivity is an inevitable development trend.

Taking the QQ red envelope event as an example, the original AR content was a three-guess-one red envelope game, that is, only one of the three red envelopes had money. If multi-person interactive technology is added, two or more people can play the red envelope game at the same time, realizing effective interaction between people. For example, in the Alipay Five Blessings Collection activity, interactive content can be added in which two or more people compete for blessings together to upgrade the fun. With the continuous innovation of technology, technical concepts such as multi-person interactive devices and multi-person interactive scenes will surely become a reality.

2. Full sensory development

When it comes to sensory development, we have to mention VR technology. At present, VR technology is most widely used in the fields of gaming and film and television, and can simulate vision, touch and hearing. But AR is different. AR is based on the real world, so currently the interactive senses are vision and hearing. However, AR technology will inevitably inherit the characteristics of VR technology in the future and include tactile interaction like VR wearable devices. Both AR and VR are working towards the direction of full sensory development. If AR advertising is to achieve full sensory development, in addition to current technical conditions, it is also necessary to be equipped with sensory generation equipment and even mind control equipment.

For example, during human-computer interaction, when flowers appear in the game, the olfactory generation device will immediately generate floral scent and transmit it to the participant's nose, making the participant feel as if they are personally there. In fact, to a certain extent, whether it is AR augmented reality or VR virtual reality, both use devices to generate virtual things to meet the needs of participants. AR advertising is based on this.

In a nutshell, AR advertising is reversing consumers' negative fixed mindset about traditional advertising, and technological changes will make AR advertising more and more perfect. However, don’t forget the established fact that AR advertising is advertising. If companies do not get returns, this “fire” will sooner or later become history.

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

The author of this article @刘宽 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting! Site Map