Augmented reality marketing

What augmented reality marketing is.

Augmented reality, or AR, places digital content over the live view from a phone camera. Augmented reality marketing uses that to show a product or a brand idea in the person's own surroundings. Virtual reality is different, because it replaces the surroundings entirely and usually calls for a headset. AR only needs a phone.

Marketing AR tends to come in three broad types. Face and body tracking lets someone see a product on themselves, as with glasses, makeup or a hat. Image tracking recognizes a printed surface, such as a label, a poster or a box, and animates content on top of it. Surface tracking places a 3D object on the floor or a table, so someone can see a piece of furniture in their room or walk around a character.

When AR makes sense.

AR earns its cost when seeing something in place answers a real question, such as how a pair of glasses will look or whether a sofa suits the room. It also works when there's a physical object to start from, such as packaging, a store display or an event, since the object tells people to point their phone at it.

It's a harder case when nothing about the product benefits from being seen in 3D, when the audience is rarely going to hold up a phone in that moment, or when the campaign has no clear way to get people into the experience. If a good video would make the same point, we'd suggest the video.

AR with no app download.

Installing an app is a lot to ask for a marketing experience. Web-based AR avoids that step by running in the phone's browser. Someone scans a QR code or taps a link, gives the browser permission to use the camera, and the experience starts.

That approach has trade-offs. Browser AR is generally lighter than what a dedicated app can do, and how it behaves varies across phones and browsers, so we test on the devices your audience actually uses. AR effects on social platforms are another route, with their own tools, review processes and rules, and support for them changes over time. We confirm what's available for your plan in the scope.

Try-ons, packaging and worlds.

Each type of experience brings its own work. A try-on depends on the quality of the 3D models and how closely they match the real product, so color and fit need to be reviewed against the actual item. We'd present a try-on as a way to see the look, since it isn't a guarantee of size or exact shade unless it has been tested for that.

Packaging experiences need artwork the camera can recognize reliably. We prefer to test the artwork early and on real printed samples, ideally before the print run is locked.

Experiences placed in a room need 3D assets small enough to load quickly on a phone and clear enough to work in ordinary home lighting.

Camera access and privacy.

AR depends on the camera, so people need a clear reason to allow access. We explain what's happening on the screen before the browser asks, and we provide a fallback, such as a 3D viewer or a video, for anyone who declines or whose phone can't run it.

We decide with you whether any images or video leave the device, and we prefer designs that don't need them to. Face tracking deserves particular care, because rules on biometric information exist in some places and vary by market. Those questions go to your qualified reviewer before launch, along with any consent wording.

How we measure AR.

We track each step, because AR has more places to lose people than a normal page. That includes how many people arrived from each code or link, how many allowed the camera, how many got the experience running, how long they stayed and how many took the next step.

Camera permission and load time are the first numbers we look at, since a problem there hides everything else. We then connect the experience to the outcome you chose, such as a product page visit, a store lookup or a purchase, wherever your tracking and consent settings allow it.