Your property is your own virtual billboard – so why aren’t you using it?
What links North Face jackets warming up Big Ben, Chelsea FC’s kit being draped over Tower Bridge, Game of Thrones placing a dragon on the Flat Iron building in New York and Louis Vuitton placing Yayoi Kusama’s polka dots motif on the Eiffel Tower? They all use iconic property as a virtual billboard. It is becoming almost commonplace to see giant animated Augmented Reality (AR) and CGI content sprawling across our built environment. These virtual installations are fun, engaging, and create fantastic PR and social media buzz.
For bricks and mortar businesses, making use of your building for virtual content is a no brainer. AR virtual content is known to be more engaging. In 2021, an Ericsson Emodo study found 61% of users said AR advertising caught their interest better than traditional 2D display adverts. Showcasing virtual content to someone as they walk past your property also maximises its relevance and usefulness – giving it far more impact to footfall than a social post or display advert. Shop owners can highlight what’s in store to tempt people inside, hoteliers can promote their rooms, bars and restaurants, offices can explain who they are and what they offer, and developers can show people how their work is benefiting the community.
Moreover, using your building as a virtual billboard is cost effective and quick because there are no installation costs, no need to seek planning permission, and setting up the experience using no-code AR software takes minutes.
Your property is the ultimate low cost digital marketing channel! Use augmented reality to turn your shopfront, office entrance, or development hoarding into your digital canvas and communicate directly with people at the moment they’re walking by.
Augmented reality is no longer a novelty or a gimmick
Think of it as just another digital channel, but one that has been proven to be more engaging than the others. Augmented reality can be used to create all manner of virtual experiences – from giant animated 3D characters, to interactive images, to simple text and video.
It’s also now possible to display augmented reality content on the side of buildings across the globe – turning every building into a virtual billboard. The simplest method is to use marker-based AR. This creates a QR code that you can display on the side of your building or shop window and which passers-by with a phone can scan to access your content. More sophisticated technology is also available. This uses apps with inbuilt location-based AR support. Users can simply hold up their phone to the street and the app will recognise where they are and what buildings they are looking at. If virtual content is available, it will be displayed on the building so there is no need to scan QR codes. With either method, all passers-by need is their mobile phone so that they can see virtual content layered onto the real world – giving it powerful context and immediacy.
How to get started
Using augmented reality to turn your building into a virtual billboard is possible for every size of business. Simply head here and fill in our form at the bottom of the page and you’ll be first in line to use Signcastar – our simple no-code augmented reality solution – to create your virtual content. You’ll be able to upload existing creative assets like images and videos and our solution transforms them into augmented reality that appears on your building with a QR code you can display in your entrance way or shop window. Furthermore, because it’s a subscription based model, updating the content with Signcastar is quick and easy, meaning you can keep it fresh and interesting at all times.
If you lease or own a property, start using your virtual billboard today and turn your brick walls into a valuable marketing channel. Get in touch to find out more.
