AR & VR Tech Stands To Revolutionize Marketing

Ever since the Apple announcement featuring the augmented reality capabilities of the new iPhone X – I have not been able to stop thinking what this all means for the world of marketing. With Apple choosing to embrace augmented reality with the new iPhone X, there’s a big chance that other phone manufacturers will follow suit. That may very-well bring augmented reality to the mainstream public. Now combine that with all the advancements that have happened in the virtual reality space over the past couple of years, and you have the ability to create some truly amazing things, with augmented reality marketing & advertising making a big push through 2018.

We are entering an age where people will click onto a physical billboard ad. Click a billboard. Seriously.

Imagine you’re at the local baseball game. You lift up your iPhone X to get some player stats, you see the billboard in the background and you’re genuinely interested. So you click the billboard, the product that was advertised is instantly added to your cart. You utilize facial recognition to confirm the purchase – and your back to watching your game in seconds! Or – maybe that billboard was for an app. You clicked, the app was installed on your device, and you never missed a moment of the game. Conversions just happened from a billboard, and you can track all of them.

Things don’t stop there. Can you imagine what augmented reality and virtual reality marketing can do for product placement? If you pick up the Stop & Shop Scan It app and scan a product while shopping at one of their stores – you’ll automatically see relevant products and sales on items located on the shelves next to your scanned product. Oh and hey – maybe it might have a sponsored listing for Coca Cola. Maybe they partner up with Amazon and let you buy relevant products that aren’t physically stocked at their stores.

Think about retail sales. The ability to virtually try on products? Scan a piece of makeup at MAC and automatically have a sales rep be notified to bring you a matching eyeliner? Scan a shirt you are interested in at Century 21 and automatically be shown several full outfits, in-stock and in your size.

Maybe it’s because I grew up watching the Jetsons – and as such the concepts surrounding augmented reality & virtual reality marketing get me really excited. Current predictions show that the market for AR and VR could go as high as 160 billion in revenue by 2020. And I don’t think that’s going to be too hard to achieve. Brands have traditionally spent money on less-than-trackable forms of marketing (think billboards in a busy city square). AR takes those channels, and upgrades them with trackable data and engaging CTA’s. The next time someone asks what the ROI is of that billboard – you might actually have an answer – backed by actual data.