With hundreds of marketing companies emerging every year, brands arefinding it difficult to find a way that hasn’t been used before, to enhancetheir marketing campaigns.
How do you, as a marketer, target, engage, and convert your customersin a new & better way?
According to a Deloitte study, 88% of the companies with revenuesbetween $100 million & $1 billion are using Augmented Reality as part oftheir marketing strategies, 10% of the smaller firms utilize AR, while 72%are planning to use AR in the coming years.
Why?
Because Augmented Reality provides the marketers a unique way toengage the customers and more engagement, the more are theconversions.
What is Augmented Reality?
An interactive experience of the real-world objects and environmentenhanced by computer-generated perceptual information is known asAugmented Reality.It can also be defined as a system that completes 3 basic features: ablend of real and virtual objects, real-time interaction, and a precise 3Dconstruction of real and virtual objects
How Augmented Reality can Enhance Marketing Campaigns toBoost Sales
1: Bring the Store to the Customer
Post-global pandemic, consumers are even less willing to leave thesafety of their homes. However, the desire for the perfect productremains intact.How does a marketer then have the consumers inspect until the rightproduct is found?IKEA, the Swedish multinational conglomerate, is one of the hugecompanies that had solved this dilemma in 2016 using AugmentedReality. IKEA allows its users to view 3D renderings of more than 2000products on their smartphones using the IKEA place app.According to IKEA’s former VP Valdsgaard, the company recorded salesof $1.6 billion in online sales in the year 2016 which was named as a“dream scenario” by Valdsgaard.
2: Product Experience before PurchaseCosmetic products are more of a feeling than a materialistic purchase.And the consumers of such industries are extremely precise about theirdecisions which becomes problematic with online purchases where youcan’t feel your purchase.Using an idea similar to IKEA, Sephora took its online purchaseexperience to the next level using AR. Along with an online store,Sephora offers its customers a virtual makeup area where they can tryon lipstick, blush, lashes, and more using the camera in real-time.The usage of AR in Sephora’s marketing campaign paid off byincreasing its parent company, LVMH’s organic revenue by 11% in 2017.
3: Experiential BrandingThe branding of a product magnifies conversions when users engage fora lengthy period of time.But with the wide variety of options available in the market, it is gettingdifficult for marketers every day.Augmented Reality solves this problem by visualizing the product andengaging the audience keenly. One of the best such examples isWonderTree’s Product Animation service.Utilizing the power of Augmented Reality, WonderTree providesmarketers the unique opportunity to showcase animations on AR. Whichhelps the users visualize and engage with the product without buying oreven touching it in real. Also, the manufacturers can turn it in all anglesand customize it according to their needs.
4: Engaging Children AudienceAugmented Reality offers marketers to choose from a variety ofengaging options that can keep the attention of the younger audience ina firm grasp and educate them at the same time.One example can be WonderTree’s AR-powered tool WonderGameswhich works as a virtual physiotherapist and special education assistant.Using interactive movement-based games, WonderGames enhances achild’s motor, cognitive, and educational skills.The interaction of the games keeps the child engaged as WonderGameshelps strengthen agility, balance, coordination, memory, patternrecognition and so much more! And the parents can monitor the child’sprogress using a personalized dashboard through multiple criteria.
5: Building Emotional ConnectionsBringing emotions into marketing has been one of the most successfultactics for marketers for ages. Augmented Reality takes it to the nextlevel and arguably the best example of such a case is the collaborationbetween WWF and Coca-Cola.The Arctic Home Campaign by Coca-Cola and the World Wide Fundutilized AR into creating a virtual environment where people couldinteract with polar bears at the Science Museum in London.The campaign’s aim was to create awareness of the protection ofendangered polar bears by protecting their natural habitat. Cleverly, thismade people connect with the brand at a deep emotional level.Augmented Reality has been empowering marketers to engage andconvert their targeted customers in more than just these 5 ways.But the ultimate question is, how are you going to use AugmentedReality for enhancing your marketing campaigns to boost sales?