In our recent webinar Rosh Singh (Managing Director, Unit9) and Daniel Cheetham (Creative Innovation Director, DOOH.com) joined Darabase CEO Dominic Collins, to discuss whether it is time to say farewell to faux out of home and how it measures up to augmented reality.
- Faux out of home has become a popular marketing tactic. It uses CGI to make it look like oversized billboards or objects have been added to the physical environment. Well known examples include Maybelline’s eyelashes on the London underground, or the North Face jacket on Big Ben.
- Location-based augmented reality overlays digital content onto the real world, enhancing buildings and streets with interactive images, 3D objects and audio. These can be incredibly sophisticated cultural events such as the Gorillaz Time Square concert or far simpler implementations such as Lindt’s Easter Bunny Hunt in Canada earlier this year.
Is it a fight?
The discussion explored the roles of three different mediums in marketing: traditional out of home (OOH), faux OOH and location-based augmented reality (AR) and asked whether they compete or complement each other. OOH and FOOH are branded content, reaching large but relatively passive audiences. OOH gets value from the audience it can reach in particular locations whereas FOOH derives value from its reach on social platforms and in the marketing press. Both use content to raise brand and product awareness. By contrast, AR gains value both from its location and the interactive experience it creates for its audience. Its reach is smaller, but there is depth to the engagement that makes the audience more valuable. The three mediums don’t compete because they have different objectives and target audiences. With its lack of physical constraints FOOH can emulate the bold creativity of AR, but its purpose is closer to that of OOH. AR is a way for location-based advertising to move beyond simple awareness and start to convert audiences into purchasers. Used together, OOH, FOOH and AR create a formidable set of marketing tactics, as brands like Revolut, who launched their Ultra card last year using all three, are well aware.
It’s emotional
AR’s ability to engage its audience is what makes it so exciting for marketers. This isn’t the sort of interactivity that involves clicking on a CTA on a webpage. AR places the individual right in the centre of a story, both physically and emotionally. Physically because the 3D digital content overlays our physical surroundings and can appear all around us, and emotionally because we can interact with and personalise the story. Critically for marketers, this level of involvement means the experience is remembered.
According to a study on the neurological and brand impact of AR by Mindshare UK, AR increases ad recall by a whopping 70%. Adweek
We live in the Age of Experience. People are no longer looking to acquire possessions, but rather seek joy from intangible experiences; the satisfaction of good service and the joy of a festival or time with friends. We seek out new locations and immerse ourselves in alternative realities. Done well, AR is ideally suited to the age of experience, because it offers individuals a chance to participate in an enhanced world. In every location AR can create a 3D space in which we can explore different dimensions to our physical world – whether that’s bringing the past to life as Notre Dame has done in Paris, creating a window into our future as inCitu does with AR urban planning, or simply entertaining, as Red Bull did with its Extreme Cliff Diving AR promotion.
What next for AR?
But is AR really the future? Big tech says yes. Google, Meta, Apple and co. are investing heavily in the wearable devices (Apple’s VisionPro, Meta’s RayBans) and mapping software (the Google Geospatial API, Niantic’s Lightship maps). While this investment is creating an always-on digital layer to the world, we already have the tools to create powerful location-based AR experiences through mobile phones and OOH digital locations. These range from simple AR ad formats in Pokémon Go, to the utterly silly (and quite scary) Sky Scary Shelter in Vienna.
AR is already showing its value. AR advertising is worth $5.2bn annually and Darabase forecasts it could reach $92bn by the end of the decade as audiences shift from mobile advertising. The challenge to marketers is clear: OOH and FOOH are great, but to really engage and convert audiences, location-based AR is key. It is time for Marketers to embrace AR and learn how to tell their stories in 3D spaces.
With thanks to Daniel, Rosh and Dom.
