Digital advertising and marketing: only the best ideas worldwide, since 2003

Augmented reality shopping

on August 2, 2009 by Martina Comments

In the US Best Buy has just launched Best Buy in 3D, an augmented reality application that allows users to see in 3D the products advertised on the retailer weekly publication.

I don’t have a webcam (as you can see from the brilliant message below) so I cannot test it and appreciate its features. However I find augmented reality shopping very cool for an ecommerce website, where you have to do your best to make people “feel” and “touch” the product. If there is not e-commerce module attached, and the consumers in the end has to visit a store to purchase the good, then I’m not so sure an AR application real value is worth the effort (both for the retailer and for the consumer).

File under: augmented reality, best buy 3d

Rubberduckzilla

on June 8, 2009 by Mark Comments

If you want to destroy Tokyo then you should try this game developed by the smart guys from Poke London called RubberDuckZilla. Taking as starting point this Mother‘s TV ad for Oasis (a drink for people who don’t like water)…

Free your Dorito with augmented reality

on May 31, 2009 by Martina Comments

Augmented reality is the idea of the month. Even if it has been out there for at least a year or so, in the last month the buzz around it has literally exploded. A lot of marketers are excited by the wow effect augmented reality can generate, but fortunately another good number of bloggers and marketers have a more realistic approach to the idea. Advertising Lab writes “Augmented reality is the new Second Life“, SuperCollider blogs about “Augmented Reality, Second Life, and the trough of disillusionment“. I share their same feelings and concerns. It’s a bit like QR codes as well. Everywhere in the world (a part from Japan and South Korea probably) there is a lot of buzz around them, advertising agencies sell them as “the coolest thing” to naive clients, but numbers are not there to support the investment. Augmented Reality could suffer of the same problems, since it strongly relies on consumers having a webcam, and be willing to spend five minutes to understand what the brand ask them to do to enjoy the experience. If you use augmented reality only to promote your product or to simply entertain consumers than you are late and already out-of-fashion. The third (or even the second) comer already cannot count on the wow-effect. But but but, augmented reality can still have a future, like any other digital gadget, if it’s used in a smart, really interactive way, with the end goal of providing an added value to the end consumer.

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