Can AR Advertising Play a Role in Your Marketing?
The caveman used simple drawings to tell others about everything he saw; sadly, the messages were immobile.
Thousand years later, the Guttenberg printing press was invented, which made distributing marketing messages more accessible. Unfortunately, most people couldn’t read, which meant content sat still.
Later, the telephone rang, but as it turned out, everyone was interrupted by messages about selling or buying unimportant things.
Time passed, and radio, television, flyers, banners, door-to-door sales, Internet, mails, advertising, and digital marketing have lost their novelty and, in many cases, become increasingly ineffective.
Something new may be worth investigating as it is a disruption in marketing.
It is called Augmented Reality marketing.
Augmented reality is an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real world are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory, and olfactory. Wikipedia
Augmented Reality VS standard ads – The IKEA Experiment
A recent study using AR is promising for improving marketing with AR technology. As part of one of the laboratory studies, participants were shown three furniture products from IKEA.
The two experimental conditions were used in the study: traditional communication condition versus AR advertising condition. In the case of traditional advertising conditions, the participants viewed each product page by page through the smartphone screen.
The same participants viewed the same product through the IKEA place application.
The study results revealed that in the case of AR advertising, participants had shown stronger emotions in their emotional states than those in the traditional advertising condition.
The Problem with Traditional Advertising
With ads and flashy Internet banners, consumers find it harder to find the content they like. It makes them feel overwhelmed and interrupted. According to Mobile Marketer, banner blindness forces brands to shift their display advertising strategies.
As other recent studies show:
- US advertisers spent more than $60 billion on display advertising, but how much has been wasted? Some estimates are $51.6B. Measuring ad effectiveness is hard to measure over a short period of time, but many advertisers lose patience without quick returns.
- Click Through Rates (CTR) for banner ads have reduced from 12% in 1997 to 0.35% in 2019; 50% of web users say they never click on banner ads.
- Some other studies show: In 2020, advertisers lost $35B to ad blocking software. It’s anticipated that by 2025, that number will reach a whopping $63B; 64% of consumers believe that ads are disruptive.
- 45% report that they no longer notice online ads; 34% of ad clicks are accidental; A large-scale study of Facebook ads found that brand search ad effectiveness was overestimated by up to 4,000%.
In short, money spent on standard ads appears to be increasingly ineffective. Consumers need something visually new, different, and engaging.
Is Augmented Reality Advertising Right for your Business?
If your goal is to be noticed, traditional advertising tends to be boring and may no longer be the right approach. Most of these ads are often disliked or not even seen by the gen-z generation, who will make up more than 40% of the target market in 1-2 years.
Fun and interactive AR advertising can bring benefits to businesses meanwhile entertain customers:
- Increase conversion rates
According to Shopify, AR ads generate 94% higher conversion rates than traditional display ads. In the case of AR ads, the journey your customer goes through before they buy your product is simplified and improved. Compared to conventional ads, CTA messages in AR ads are understandable.
- Increase user engagement
According to a Deloitte Digital and Snap Inc report, 65% of consumers prefer a more personalized shopping experience. AR allows them to interact with production. That’s why 65% of consumers use AR to have fun, which makes them point their full attention to learning more about a product.
- Reach a younger audience
Gen-Z and Gen Alpha users are early adopters of AR, which will increase in the coming years. As we mentioned, AR digital marketing can give them fun and creativity.
- Increase awareness
AR is a unique way to bring attention to your campaign.
For example, creating AR masks for brands is a real trend now. It has become a helpful tool for product promotion. The statistics show that AR awareness levels range from 70%-75% among 16 to 44-year-olds. Also, A BCG study suggests that 26% of businesses use AR for brand awareness.
- Generate higher memory response
Brands that use AR are more memorable to consumers. This technology influences potential consumers to have faster-purchasing behavior. Moreover, AR experiences generate a 70% higher memory response than non-AR experiences.
- Boost sales
AR can generate more sales with more profound connections, outstanding shopper experience, and improved decision-making. San Diego-based Interactions Agency found that 72 percent of shoppers bought something they hadn’t planned to buy because of AR, and 55 percent said AR “makes shopping fun.”
Want to get noticed?
AR may be worth exploring and testing your marketing dollars, especially if your current approach isn’t generating increased revenue.
Guest Blog from Ani Manjavidze Ani has 13 years of experience in marketing and four years in augmented reality marketing. She is the CEO and founder of Crosscreators.com – a marketplace for augmented reality marketing.
