Augmented Reality Bites

July 30th, 2009

I have this new rule I’m working on: If it’s easier to buy your product than to engage with your marketing, you’re doing it wrong.

If you are trying to raise awareness, forcing a user to work is generally a bad idea. You have to give users something of high value while minimizing their effort if you want to build a better reputation.

If your goal is conversion, you should be especially careful of the barriers to entry and usage. This seems obvious, but brands consistently require too much of users in their digital marketing efforts.

Augmented Reality in Ads

Industry rags and blogs have spent months reporting on a steady stream of augmented reality (AR) ideas in marketing ever since GE launched their Smart Grid AR site.

A recent entry into the pool is for Always Infinity. The site claims to show you a magic trick.

All you have to do is follow the instructional video and simple two-step process of printing a graphic out on a sheet of paper and holding it up to the camera while it superimposes the magic. What’s the magic in this case? A 3d animation of a rabbit in a hat. It’s cute, but fluff. The real magic trick is making 5-10 minutes disappear with nothing to show for it – including a greater appreciation of their new pads.

This is how most of these campaigns work. I think they’re mostly flops. They’re ideas pulled out of the bookmarks bar of a desperate art director, sold to a client as the next big thing, and supported by an industry press with a shortage of interesting topics.

There were two instances of this particular form of webcam-based AR in recent marketing efforts that were successful. The first was the aforementioned GE project. This was the first big brand use of AR and it seemed like advanced – if novel – tech coming from GE. It was cool and not overtly pushing a product.

The second was a project developed by AKQA for the United States Postal Service (USPS) that let users hold items up to their camera to find the best Priority Mail shipping box. The damned thing had a purpose, and used the tech in an interesting way.

Everyone else doing this stuff has been trying to fit in, adding to the noise. They’ve expected users to find inspiration in the declining novelty of webcam AR, put in the work of printing an image, engage in the theatrics, and eagerly send to a friend.

Instead of patronizing your audience, pushing this gimmick as new to them, why not find a real reward for engagement? Make the payoff ten times as valuable as the work users put in. Only the first project to use a gimmick gets to call the work itself the payoff.

Let me repeat my new rule to the consumer brands out there looking for gimmicks that make demands of people: If it’s easier to buy your product than to engage with your marketing, you’re doing it wrong.