How AR will change how you shop—and how brands sell to you

Imagine you’re browsing online, and you click on a product you’re interested in – let’s say, for example, a car. The product description opens up, and you have the ability to layer a virtual, augmented reality over your current surroundings. Now, using your phone, you can get a feel for what it would be like to be behind the wheel of that car – you can look around, see out the front window, see the console and the insides. All without leaving your couch.

Augmented or artificial reality (AR) is giving marketers the opportunity to showcase products and services in real time. And now consumers are getting the chance to experience a product first-hand, without the hassle of driving there, or hot fitting rooms, or pushy salespeople.    

Read more: The pleasure and danger of Augmented Reality.

AR in advertising & marketing in 2018

Many of us have seen AR in action without even realizing it. If you’ve ever watched a professional football or tennis match, you’ve seen AR at work. That yellow line in football that shows the distance between the first-down mark and the football? AR.

While there are advances happening in AR every day, the first use case of AR can be dated back to 1968 to aid with computer-rendered drawings. While it was initially used for more technology-based products, in 2008 a German advertising agency utilized AR to market the BMW Mini, connecting a virtual model to a physical print ad. By moving the print ad, you could see different angles and views of the digital car.

In a more recent-application of AR in marketing, advertising agency Lemon&Orange recently created AR experiences for the brand Timberland. The agency enabled shoppers to enter virtual fitting rooms to try on Timberland’s products and experience what the products would look like on them in real life. You can watch the video here.

Another example of a company using AR to help its bottom line is Home Depot. Home Depot’s app lets you see paint colors, and how they’d look in your home in your lighting, through their app. You might not have noticed, but companies have been using AR to market to you this whole time.

And, hey, if you’ve ever used Snapchat, you’ve used AR. When you take your picture using the app, you can layer an AR filter over it, transforming yourself into a dog or a bear or adding geotags to your post. Ever heard of Pokemon Go? That’s AR in use, as well.

Watch: Pokémon GO: How Augmented Reality improves our experience of “real life”

What is the future of AR in advertising?

Companies who have leaned into the new technology and exposure that AR has offered have seen significant successes in their fields. 

With forecasts coming in with around 200 million AR users worldwide, it’s no wonder early adopters have seen so much excitement and success in marketing their products using AR.  

While there are a few reasons AR has been so successful in terms of how companies are marketing to us, the most important reasons are:

• It helps us, the consumer, create an emotional connection to the product/brand/service

• We are more likely to become immersed in AR, rather than expensive print advertising, which translates to money-saving for the company

• Being able to try on products virtually has boosted sales for companies who use AR

• AR uses machine learning to improve local marketing tactics

The future of advertising and marketing lies in companies’ abilities to seamlessly integrate an AR experience with your real life.

Think of AR like this: when you go to a grocery store, imagine being able to see which products fit your new diet, or are low in sodium, or fit your religious views. You could hold up your phone or use a headset (like Google’s goggles) and the items you’ve specified would be highlighted. You could easily ignore the foods that you’re not interested in, and go straight to the products you are searching for. No more wandering down aisles, picking up boxes and flipping them over to make sure they have what you want.

Companies who offer trips, like beach resorts, will soon begin to market to us consumers by offering a try-before-you-buy option. From your smartphone, you can get a 360-view of a hotel and learn what it has to offer, what your room would look like, and what amenities they offer.

Some companies are bringing the future to us now. When shopping online for products through some retailers, like Wayfair, you can use your smart device to see how the furniture you’re looking for would look right now, in your home. If you like the product, you can then buy it, straight from their app in an integrated experience.

When walking through an airport, you could scan a QR code and be taken to a website in which you could virtually experience a local beach, a rental car, or even what the food looks like.

Read more: How AI, VR and AR will change how you vacation