The 4th industrial revolution is happening right now. Our smartphones and computers now understand the concept of space. Welcome to spatial computing. We now have a brand new way to utilize the digital content we marketers create every day to match with our surroundings. We can create wholesome experiences, where the physical and the digital seamlessly meet.
Augmented reality will fill the world with virtual content. As shown by the development of gigantic companies like Facebook and Apple, the future is not far away, as the future is already here. Now is an excellent time to evaluate why AR is such an essential part of marketing and advertising today, and even more so in the future.
What is the purpose of marketing?
Growth. That is the core reason why you should do any marketing or advertising. If you want to grow, you need to be seen and heard. And, as all of us marketers know, it’s a hard job to do in today’s ocean of marketing messages and ads.
The audience is picky about what types of content and ads they feel are relevant to them. If you’re only trying to push and sell, you will get nowhere. You need to create value and be helpful. When you can offer something extra to the customers, your audience will embrace you and your offerings and maybe even recommend you to their network. And that’s where growth happens.
But how do you get there? How can you create marketing so intriguing you’ll get your potential customers hooked after just one look?
Create growth with augmented reality
AR is a purpose-built hooking and delightful medium. Customers like the experience and want to spend time with it. AR is a tool that elevates your storytelling and interaction with the audience. Growth can happen in several directions: audience, sales, brand, and yourself.
With AR, you can go anywhere!
Grow your audience
When the consumers are getting pickier and pickier towards the content they want to consume, we marketers need to offer something that hits hard. Something that resonates with the audience on an emotional level. The experience economy we’re living in has changed consumer behaviour so that the cheapest or the best quality isn’t enough. Businesses need to offer experiences.
What these weird times have shown us, experiences are moving more and more online. When face-to-face interactions have decreased, AR is raising its head to offer those experiences virtually - smoothly and effortlessly.
Augmented reality is growing fast as a channel, so now is the time to hop on board and find the kinds of content consumers enjoy. Today, when AR is still considered a novelty, almost any type of experience will do. It’s still relatively easy to get free attention with a new medium. That won’t be the case soon.
Trying and failing now will secure your position in the competition when everyone else adopts the technology.
AR is scalable, shareable, and reachable. With browser-based AR (WebAR), your content is available in billions of smartphones your customers are already carrying in their pockets. And this is something we all love: content that is interesting and engaging, that has the potential to reach and is easy to share.
AR is like winning in the growth lottery!
Grow your sales
AR is a medium your customers love to spend their time with. It is an excellent channel to tell more about you: your business’s background, your products, and your services. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of a medium that your audience loves and that enables you to tell a more complete story than any other?
When you can deliver essential info about you and your offerings, the potential buyers are more likely to take another step with you. AR’s potential lies in its interactiveness. The users can have a genuine, personal interaction with your brand, even without physically interacting with you or your products.
AR also helps in those cases where your product or service is a bit more complicated. You’ll be able to inform both visually and audibly at the same time, using animations and interactions.
AR can bring in a much-needed boost in your sales. Your audience can explore the content at their own pace and space, safely and comfortably.
Seeing the product come to life in their environment eases the purchasing choice, and can reduce returns.
The earlier you connect with your customers on the buyer’s journey, the more likely you will hit the goal.
Grow your brand
Growing your brand happens simultaneously with growing your audience and sales. But that’s not all you can get out of taking on AR. Augmented reality content allows you to interact with your audience in completely new ways.
Utilizing the intimacy of the AR experience, you can achieve an emotional connection like never before. With AR, you can create truly memorable brand content.
AR allows you to inform and influence more efficiently than with any other marketing channel or trick. AR stimulates the brain more than an experience without it. The more you can create these stimulations associated with your brand, the more likely your brand and offering will be remembered.
Grow yourself
AR is a continually evolving technology - and it’s developing fast! By embracing AR, you can learn more about your audience, your field, and your competition. As a marketer, you can also grow your knowledge and skills.
With a better understanding of AR’s possibilities, you can get a new perspective on how you can do marketing. Maybe even how you can better use your and your audience’s surroundings and spaces as marketing platforms.
AR enables you to update your creative skillset.
AR also allows you to explore different kinds of content creation, such as video, photos, 3D, and more. A great way to try out new things and learn what resonates with your audience!
Put your content right where your audience is - even to the moon!
Augmented reality allows you to put your marketing messages right where your audience is - everywhere in the world. You can easily attach an extra layer of immersive content into street art, exhibitions, historic locations, or anywhere you can think of. Or your content can be purely online if that works better for you!
There is soon going to be a 4G network on the moon! The growth possibilities are limitless!
The user base of AR is around 1 billion. The number of AR devices has reached 3 billion and is only going up. That is thanks to smartphones and the adoption of WebAR. These AR devices are already in the hands of your audience.
Mobile AR is continuously evolving, and soon-to-be AR glasses and 5G will accelerate the technology’s mass adoption. When that happens, at the latest, augmented content will be all around us.
Mobile AR, combined with quality content, provide seamless, engaging, and delighting experiences, which are assured to grasp your audience’s attention – the attention that is hard to earn with traditional methods.
All you need now is to learn how to augment yourself and your brand to launch yourself to the future of marketing! The countdown is on.
