In the past few years, augmented reality (AR) has revolutionized the marketing and advertising industries. By combining “real” and virtual interactive elements, augmented reality (AR) enables businesses to offer their customers engaging, distinctive experiences. As one of the most popular options among B2C markets, this new trend is altering the way that marketing and sales are done.

What are the benefits of augmented reality in marketing?

Benefits of augmented reality in marketing include: making your brand more accessible, helping you go viral, educating your customers, boosting customer engagement, improving brand perception…

AR can be used in a variety of contexts, such as connected packaging or apps. The benefits and drawbacks of augmented reality in marketing will be discussed in this article, along with some tips on how your company can benefit from this cutting-edge, interactive virtual solution and differentiate itself from the competition.

please read on for more detailed information.

The Definition Of Augmented Reality

By overlaying digital content directly on top of the user’s physical environment using a smartphone or other device, augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality, improves the user’s physical environment., it augments the user’s real-world surroundings).

For instance, while looking through the camera on your phone while at home, you’ll still recognize your living room and everyone in it, but there will be some digital augmentation, such as text descriptions or a dog that isn’t actually there. If you go into your backyard, you might see a flying saucer land or a dinosaur charging toward you. Anything is possible!

Here’s some of the ways AR is already being used today:

• The actual view of the road may be superimposed with a route by navigation systems.
• On a football field, sportscasters can draw lines to represent and describe plays.
• The layout of the different aisles in large stores can aid in navigation.
• Military pilots can view altitude, speed, and other data in their helmet visor
• Before using an actual patient and operating table, medical students and even experienced surgeons can practice or plan out procedures on a virtual patient.

Benefits Of Using Ar In Marketing

There are countless opportunities available for creative businesses that are willing to investigate this cutting-edge technology, with fascinating new virtual worlds just waiting to be unlocked.

Here are just a few of the numerous advantages of implementing AR in marketing.

Making Your Brand More Accessible

In 2022, there will likely be 6.6 billion smartphone users worldwide, or about 83% of the world’s population. By 2027, that number is anticipated to increase to 7.7 billion, while the overall global mobile phone market is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 6.8% from 2016 to 2031.

Customers can now enjoy immersive brand experiences from the comfort of their homes thanks to the rapidly expanding smartphone market, which has made AR capabilities available to the vast majority of consumers. Customers can access your content and products from anywhere in the world, allowing brands to truly go global.

Your customers can easily bring your products into the real world with the touch of a button thanks to AR, which is accessible on almost any mobile device via useful QR codes and links.

Helping You Go Viral

In a Camera IQ survey, 78% of respondents said they were likely to share a brand’s augmented reality experience with their community, while 53% said they had already done so.

Creating viral content is a fantastic way to expose your brand to thousands, if not millions, of potential customers while also raising brand awareness and fostering trust. The advantage of using augmented reality for marketing stems from the distinctiveness of the content you can produce, such as immersive events and experiences. With this, you can differentiate your brand’s content from more conventional forms.

Educating Your Customers

Trying to comprehend a complicated product can easily become confusing and overwhelming, increasing the likelihood that customers will reject a sale.

With the help of augmented reality (AR), you can simplify even the most complex information into digestible digital bites that will better help customers appreciate the value of your goods. This shortens the sales cycle because customers will have more time to understand how your products can benefit them rather than having to spend as much time trying to understand them.

Customers are more likely to view brands that actively work to educate them as trustworthy and open, which is crucial for fostering brand loyalty and boosting sales. For instance, Shopify claims that merchants who include 3D content in their stores experience an average 94% increase in conversions.

Boosting Customer Engagement

While its immersive and interactive features can boost engagement and enhance the overall customer experience, AR content’s novelty can assist brands in cutting through the marketing din.

Because AR technology is so adaptable, it can be added to digital assets as easily as it can be used in physical marketing materials, which promotes interaction both online and offline. In order for customers to interact with 3D content in AR on their phone, apps like JigSpace, for instance, can generate QR codes that can be printed on brochures, product packaging, signage, and more.

Improving Brand Perception

Compared to brands that rely on more conventional channels, brands that use well-executed AR marketing strategies can appear to be more creative, exciting, and forward-thinking. Additionally, it can support your brand’s ability to adapt to the future, which is crucial for businesses that sell pricey goods with lengthy warranties. In many instances, whether or not you make a sale may depend on your ability to demonstrate that your business will be around to honor that warranty.

And they’re just plain enjoyable, too! And we all know that offering customers entertaining experiences is a great way of becoming a brand that people actively want to engage with and purchase from.

Making Budget-friendly Ar Marketing A Reality

The use of AR technology used to be very expensive and frequently required specialized knowledge.

Now, anyone can produce incredible AR content internally without expending a lot of time or money thanks to apps like JigSpace. For instance, our interface is made to be as user-friendly as possible, with straightforward drag-and-drop capabilities, simple sharing capabilities, and a large library of ready-made models and animations to bring your products to life.

Enhancing The Online Shopping Experience

According to studies, 61% of surveyed online shoppers preferred making purchases on websites that offered augmented reality technology, and 63% thought augmented reality would enhance their shopping experience. Additionally, 35% of consumers said AR would motivate them to conduct more frequent online purchases.

What does this entail for online merchants, then?

Brands can increase sales while reducing returns by using AR technology. AR can assist online shoppers in making better, quicker, and more informed purchasing decisions by displaying products in a real-world environment. This can help customers visualize items that they are unable to hold, touch, or wear in person, removing a lot of the uncertainty and guesswork involved in online shopping.

Augmented Reality Vs. Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are frequently misunderstood. Why is AR different from VR now that you understand what it is?

The goal of virtual reality is to completely submerge the user in the world. It takes a headset to completely obstruct out the outside world in order to simulate an alternate reality where you can feel the rush of racing, skydiving, or going on a zombie hunt. Of course, both are used in a variety of industries and have an impact on marketing. See more about Benefits Of Influencer Marketing

How Augmented Reality Is Being Used In Marketing?

According to a 2019 Deloitte survey, small and medium-sized businesses continue to adopt AR and VR technology much more slowly than large businesses (those with annual revenues of $100M to $1B). Why?

The other major misunderstanding that some small and medium-sized businesses have about augmented reality is that it will necessitate a sizable financial investment in new technology, along with the idea that it is only a gaming technology. Once more, this is untrue. Everyone can now enjoy virtual experiences thanks to smartphones, and who in this day and age doesn’t own one?

Aside from entertainment, AR accomplishes a lot more. In marketing, augmented reality can be used as a brand differentiator to leave a lasting impression. Those who have had success with AR are aware that it must be useful and not just a gimmick. Gimmicks may succeed in the short term because the technology is still in its infancy, but it won’t be long before AR is accepted as a mainstay of marketing and its novelty wears off. Only those who properly utilize AR will profit at that point.

In what ways does AR add value? To some extent, the name itself provides the answer: It must enhance the users’ reality and offer an experience. It can’t just provide some extra content that is readily available on a website. In fact, that’s essentially what QR codes did, which is why—despite their brief resurgence as a channel for contactless menus during COVID—they aren’t nearly as common today. Now imagine that filet mignon appeared in front of you using augmented reality (AR) technology, as opposed to being described on a contactless menu.

In short, to provide value, augmented reality must do the following:

• Enhance the user experience
• Provide engaging and branded interaction
• Be an authentic part of the brand communication strategy

Soon, we’ll look at five businesses that are effectively utilizing augmented reality.

Augmented Reality Statistics You Need To Know

Are you still unsure if AR is a good fit for your company? Before we highlight its benefits, look at some of these stats about consumers and augmented reality in eCommerce compiled by the Eclipse Group:

• 72% made impulse buys due to the AR experience.
• 71% would shop more often if they could use AR.
• 61% prefer stores that use AR favors users who do so.
• 55% say Shopping is more exciting and fun thanks to AR.
• 40% will pay more for a product if they are able to test it through AR first.

These numbers are certain to rise as AR technology adoption rates continue to soar.

How To Grow Your Ecommerce Sales By Augmented Reality?

Here is a list of the key advantages to using an AR strategy for your company after we’ve given you an overview of why you should.

Encourage Purchases

Without the customer ever leaving their house, augmented reality allows you to put a product in their hands. From test driving a potential new car to trying out a new color of lipstick (two augmented reality examples we’ll highlight in the next section), you can create AR experiences that encourage purchase

Reduce Returns

Any business could incur significant time and financial costs managing returns. Customers can test out products using augmented reality before they buy them, lowering the possibility of a return (it also enhances their experience by lowering buyers’ remorse).

Generate Excitement

Consumers can now easily skip over television ads and block out online ads thanks to technology. However, people often seek out AR experience, which means they come to you and are already highly engaged.

Create Competitive Differentiation

Whether you are focused on B2B or B2C sales, differentiating your brand through AR offers a significant competitive advantage. A customer is more likely to respond to someone who offers a virtual 360-degree look at their product lines than to someone who only has a brochure and a PowerPoint presentation.

Provide Branded Experiences

Simply because the overall in-store shopping experience is so pleasant (just consider some of the gorgeous displays), some purchases are made. Of course, doing that online is challenging. However, brands can customize an in-home experience for consumers using augmented reality (AR) to give them the impression that they are in the store.

Test New Products

80,000 out of the more than 30,000 new consumer products that are introduced each year fail, according to the Harvard Business School. Today, AR can be used to showcase products that are still in development and collect consumer feedback. If the feedback is negative, there is no need to spend money on expensive prototypes or launch a product only to have it fail. Companies can decide whether to move forward (and possibly what changes to make) based on a positive response.

Reach All Learners

Some products have a small learning curve, and everyone learns differently. Audio, visual, and kinesthetic learning are the three main learning styles. You’ll need a television ad to reach the visual learner, whereas a radio ad may be more appealing to the auditory learner. And neither will engage the kinesthetic learner, who requires hands-on experience, in full. You can reach all three learners at once by using AR, which checks all three boxes.

Augmented Reality Marketing Campaigns By Appetite Creative

The best, most innovative, and most successful augmented reality marketing campaigns are what we specialize in at Appetite Creative. Hire a seasoned agency that has worked for the biggest players across various industries if you want to improve your service, strengthen your relationship with customers, and generate leads. This will help you get the best results from your campaign.

As an illustration, we collaborated with Vodafone to create a brand-specific augmented reality app that enables users to embark on a digital treasure hunt by scanning QR codes and receiving hints inside the app.

Contact us right away to discuss your upcoming AR project so that we can discuss this type of solution or any others that are appropriate for your brand.

Examples Of Augmented Reality In Marketing

Virtually every industry can benefit from AR marketing. Here are just some of the brands already reaping the benefits of using augmented reality in their marketing strategies:

Ikea

Allowing customers to place realistic, true-to-scale 3D models of IKEA products in any room of their house, the IKEA Place In 2017, an AR app was released. Customers can use the app to visualize furniture in a real-world environment so they can see exactly how the products would fit in their home.

Sephora

It can be very difficult to determine whether a particular lipstick or foundation will look good on you when there are so many options and shades available.

Sephora’s Virtual Artist app uses Customers will be able to “try on” a variety of makeup using AR technology from the comfort of their homes. This makes it possible for customers to select the ideal products for their faces without having to physically visit a store or actually apply makeup to their skin.

Pepsi Max

The brand used the magic of augmented reality to depict unbelievable events at bus shelters across Great Britain, bringing the “unbelievable” nature of Pepsi Max to life.

Modern AR technology was installed on the glass of the bus shelter sides in order to accomplish this. The AR on the glass functioned similarly to that on a smartphone, showing a live feed of the street with fantastical scenarios superimposed to give the impression that they were actually happening.

People were entertained by unbelievable, outlandish, and entertaining scenes while they waited for buses at the bus shelter, including alien abductions and tentacles emerging from the ground. Pepsi Max Unbelievable bus shelters quickly gained internet fame thanks to the reactions of people who were then captured on camera and posted online.

Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN had to figure out a way to get as many fans excited as possible prior to the F1 2022 season because they had a new name, a new driver lineup, a new logo, and a stunning new car.

The team teamed up with JigSpace to put the C42 in the hands of every fan as an AR-viewable 3D model in order to get people excited about the release of their new car.

The race car’s release and JigSpace’s WebAR Viewer’s debut happened simultaneously. Fans didn’t even need to download the app in order to explore the vehicle’s eye-catching new look thanks to the WebAR Viewer.

Gucci

One of the first luxury retailers to offer customers the ability to try on sneakers using augmented reality was Gucci.

Gucci was able to improve sales and client satisfaction by enabling online shoppers to picture how the shoes would appear in actual use. Customers can more clearly understand the products they’re purchasing thanks to AR’s “try before you buy” capabilities, which reduce the number of returns.

Conclusion

Using augmented reality technology to embed and actualize marketing content in a customer environment is a basic definition. As an alternative, it can be viewed as a marketing or sales strategy that enables brands to assist customers in interacting with them, making wiser purchases, and minimizing returns.

Many thanks for reading.