Posts Tagged marketing
Interview with Esquire Magazine about Augmented Reality Issue
Posted by Tom Carpenter in Uncategorized on November 10, 2009
On TODAY, Meredit Vieira talked with Esquire’s David Granger about their November augmented reality issue. David shows off the AR portion of the magazine on the show and talks about why Esquire chose to use the nascent technology.
David believes the use of AR helps get people excited about the magazine, enhances its content, but doesn’t fundamentally change the magazine’s purpose. I agree with the sentiment, but the reported cost of adding AR to the magazine was over $100,000. If a sustained increase in sales can justify this kind of additional cost on a regular basis, then we might see more magazines taking the plunge and adding AR to their regular content.
However, I don’t see this as a longterm trend because this still doesn’t change the fact that content is regularly free on the Internet and it already has video access. Bringing people to their computers to view additional content on their webcam is about the same as asking people to go to the Esquire webpage to watch a video. AR might spike interest in their publication and grab a few more eyeballs temporarily, but AR is not the savior of the print business.
Popularity: 11% [?]
Another Augmented Reality Business Card
Posted by Tom Carpenter in Steal This AR Idea!, augmented reality on October 13, 2009
So it’s another augmented reality business card. This time from the company Genuine Interactive. The use of a 3D video landscape within the augment is cute, but there’s one major flaw with this application. It requires the use of a PC.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for the AR business card. I even requested one. But I need to be able to see it with my smartphone so I can show it to someone on a business trip. Requiring me to be near a PC to view the AR business card doesn’t mesh well with the social nature of business greetings.
There are four or five different companies working on AR business cards right now. They should band together and make iPhone and Android apps for seeing these cards and release the apps for free. Let the content of their creation be the selling point. Otherwise this concept will die to the friction of using it.
Popularity: 25% [?]
The Rocket Cow Augmented Reality Business Card
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on September 28, 2009
It’s not really an another augmented reality business card. In fact, it looks like the team at FullSix just printed a marker on the back of a standard card. Yet I found the video strangely entertaining and yearned to have my own rocket cow to pilot onto fluffy croissant landing pads.
While the video doesn’t advance the science of augmented reality, its whimsical attitude certainly perked up my Monday morning, proving the point that sometimes gimmicks can be just plain fun (happy iPhone-esque commercial music helps as well.)
Can I get a rocket launcher on that cow, too?
Popularity: 10% [?]
Sing Along with Sean Kingston
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on August 25, 2009
Augmented reality will bring new and interesting ways to embarrass ourselves. Really.
The 19-year old reggae singer, Sean Kingston, has an upcoming album “Tomorrow,” due out September 22nd, that will include an AR marker in the CD case to be used for a karaoke session with Lil Sean. Fans will get to sing along on one song, “Fire Burning,” while Lil Sean (a miniature animated version of him shown on his CD cover) dances on screen with them. The news release claims fans can choreograph his dance moves. The idea behind the augmented reality project is to get fans to make videos with Lil Sean and send them in or to post them on YouTube.
I’ve spent my fair share of time in Japan making a fool of myself singing karaoke and if they can get people to post them to YouTube, it’ll drive the marketing through viral videos. Only if they’re particularly awkward though, which luckily for Sean, is the point of karaoke.
Epic’s executive vice president of marketing Lee Stimmel had this to say about the project:
It’s all about the one-to-one marketing that we as labels tend to lose. If I get a 10-year-old kid to get engaged with Sean Kingston by building a video and showing it to his buddies, I just turned on four more guys and gals to him. That has to resonate with entertainment going forward.
The reason I choose this to write about, even though its not even released, is it helps illustrate some of the points I made in the “10 Things Your AR App Must Have To Succeed” post from earlier this week. The technology is not the star. Instead, they’ve utilized it to help engage the fan in new and interesting ways.
This usage is not trying to directly increase click-through, or make immediate sales like a door-to-door salesman. Consumers are much too savvy to fall for these types of transparent attempts. Instead, they’re trying to elevate the fan’s experience by investing in making the fan happier. The service only happens after they buy a CD (granted you can surely copy it from somewhere), so they’re improving the fan’s experience after the purchase. They believe that excited fans will help generate the sales they want for them which makes sense. We take purchasing advice from people we trust, not from goofy technology-laden ads.
Will this campaign be a hit? Hard to tell. How easy it is to use and upload will also make a difference.
I liked the Cannonballz game from Zugara because it did all the uploading for me so I didn’t have to do anything other than jump around in my room like an idiot. If I’m forced to work too hard to look like an idiot in my own house, then I won’t bother.
[Via Reuters]
Popularity: 9% [?]
Can We At Least Have A Reason To Use AR?
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on July 29, 2009
Clearly who ever made this augmented reality campaign didn’t read this post.
Not only are they repeating what’s been done a hundred times already, but the technology tie-in has absolutely no point. Star Trek Enterprise in your room, sure, I get that. Star Trek is science fiction and AR is a bit holographic so it makes sense. The GE campaign was neat because it was new. A few others have been so-so, but Always the feminine hygiene product company?
Really?!?!
I’m not even sure what the whole point of a white rabbit coming out of a white hat with a magic wand is. And if I start to figure it out, I’m going to bludgeon myself with a sock full of pennies until I forget.
Who ever recorded this video gets it right by titling it: Pointless Always (With Wings?) Augmented Reality Demo.
Let this be a lessen to all those marketing people out there. Just because you have a hammer in your toolbox doesn’t mean you need to use it, unless you have a nail, of course.
The only good that can come of this, is that it serves as a warning for other marketers not to use AR in the marketing campaigns, just because they can. Unfortunately, I know we’re in for a couple of years worth of pointless AR marketing campaigns. Buckle up, its going to be a bumpy ride.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Blink 182 Concert on Your Doritos Bag
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on July 6, 2009
While the GE AR campaign is probably the most successful viral campaign so far, I think the upcoming Doritos AR campaign with the rock/punk band Blink 182 has the potential to surpass.
A special symbol on a limited edition bag will be used as a marker for the concert that will be played in your room using Augmented Reality. There will be some feedback after the concert in the form of audio pickup, and if there is enough noise (I can guarantee there will be), they will come out for an encore.
The bands breakup in 2005 and reformation in 2009 will probably guarantee a large audience for this AR stunt. I suspect it will be a successful one that will launch their summer tour.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Zugara Social Shopper
Posted by Tom Carpenter in augmented reality on June 24, 2009
Zugara brings us the next installment of AR shopping. The company is an advertising agency that uses interactive marketing. They have an impressive client list including the company I work for, Toyota.
Their new AR product – The Webcam Social Shopper uses AR markers with motion capture to help the shopper “try-on” different clothing. I like the way you only have to use the AR marker to set up the 3D plane, then once it captures the location, you can go markerless. Also, it uses motion capture so you can scroll through the clothing choices without having to run back to your computer each time.
The markerless and motion capture scrolling gives the Webcam Social Shopper an easy-to-use feel that I think is important for any product, especially AR. The more steps it involves, the less chance people will bother to use it.
[Via Disrpution]
Popularity: 4% [?]
The Marketing Friction of Gimmicks
Posted by Tom Carpenter in Uncategorized on May 22, 2009
During the next year, we’re going to see a host of new AR gimmicks and websites that will claim that AR has been used to improve their business. In this post from webdistortion.com, the author claims that 8 AR marketing campaigns have been “used…to great effect.” Unless the desired effect was to print out lots of AR marker papers, I’m going to disagree. The main focus of a marketing campaign should not be website traffic, but reaching customers and increasing sales. The only way we can say these AR marketing campaigns worked was if they converted traffic into a sale, but my guess is most people were there to see the gimmick.
One of the problems with the AR gimmick, besides that people are mostly there to see a demonstration of the technology and not the product, is the friction of actually using it. To see the AR version of the product, one has to print out a piece of paper, get the webcam hooked up and hold it up to see it work. This is a lot of work compared to driving by billboard that says “Eat At Joes”.
All that work is the friction. There is a universal law that says, “the easier something is to do, the more likely people will do it.” The AR gimmick marketing campaigns are high in friction. They’ll work the first few times , but once their curiosity is satiated, they won’t bother. It’s too much work.
The purpose of this post is not to pile on the hate for these style of marketing campaigns. Instead I’d like to point out that marketing campaign developers need to move beyond the current situation. Once people are familiar with the technology, the desire to see a new gimmick is not going to be enough to overcome the friction of all that work. So to reach potential customers, you need to either make it easier to use or create a higher level of desire.
Find ways to make it paperless, add a coolness factor that others haven’t seen (make a purple cow), turn it into an iPhone app that people will use, make it interact with real world objects, make it educational, etc.
In other words, use your brain and don’t be like these guys from Seth Godin’s blog:
I recall having a conversation with the marketing folks at Simon & Schuster. I complained that I had just returned from a road trip and didn’t see the book in a single airport book store. I insisted that business travelers were the ideal audience. They came back to me with a simple request: tell me where you or Seth were going to be flying and they would make sure that the book was in the bookstore in that airport…
Popularity: 5% [?]
Subscribe
Recent Comments