From QR Codes to Augmented Reality

By Alex Hau, Senior Regional Interactive Manager, APAC for Universal McCann

Look, most marketers probably will agree with me on this - QR codes campaigns are just a fad pretty much anywhere outside of Japan. Manufacturer support is not there, and in most cases the experience doesn’t offer much value to the consumers. I don’t mind typing a SMS with my chunky fingers on the tiny phone to enter a contest (I am used to the pain of finger arthritis), but very unlikely that I’ll jump through all the hoops of downloading your app, switching it on, and snapping a photo of your QR code just to visit your contest site. (Yes you know who you are… and I know I will have “better luck next time” thank you very much)

Unless you give consumers some genuinely appealing incentives, no one but the most curious will download a potentially buggy app on their handset and point it at your QR code.

Under the concept of “value exchange” between consumers and marketers in this age of social media; to earn brand engagement time with consumers’ a brand needs to give back something of value whether it be entertainment, information, experience, etc. Right now plain old QR code just doesn’t cut it after the initial novelty factor wears out. So what’s next?

You might have heard of the term Augmented Reality (AR)? Wikipedia sums it up as “a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery - creating a mixed reality.” It seems to be “popping up” everywhere right now (pardon the pun) and mostly on mobile devices. While some make use of QR code technology, some are doing away with the code altogether.

I remember seeing a demo about two years back, one of our partners shown me his AR demo on the mobile phone and it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. You point your phone’s camera at a QR code printed on a piece of paper and on your phone’s screen up pops a 3D object extruding from the print ad! (watch this video if you still have no clue to what I am describing) It was like discovering pop-up books all over again!

Sure it’s gimmicky but you can’t deny it’s an interesting trick! Our sister agency McCann Erickson created a campaign using such technology for Nike in Hong Kong last year to great reception. This year we saw McDonald’s and Adidas making us of the same technology as well.

Is it just a fad or viable marketing tool? Time will tell, but already we are seeing AR technology being implemented in various creative ways. Here are some commercial examples.

Ray Ban created an application on the PC that allow consumers to try on sunglasses virtually using a web cam and dedicated software. Consumers can see in real-time how a pair of sun glasses will look on their head from various different angles. Watch a user created video clip here. One of the main criticisms of e-commerce had always been the lack of a tactile experience. That might still be true today but AR is bringing us one step closer to true “try before you buy” when shopping online.

Brands are also making use of AR technology at retail to further engage with consumers. Last month in Tokyo, the luxury brand Loewe launched an in-store AR experience for their customers. They made available a bunch of iPhones with custom developed AR app for consumers to browse the shop virtually. By clicking on floating icons on screen, customers can discover information about Loewe’s history and products not seen by the naked eye. Watch the video here.

Similarly, Lego created in-store AR kiosks in the U.S. so kids can visualize in 3D what their Lego blocks will look like after (their parents) spend hundreds of hours piecing the little blocks together.

Could real-time-virtual-world-augmented-reality-marketing be the next big thing? We’ve finally reached a point where it’s economically feasible to create virtual worlds in the context of the real one that everyone can interact with and understand. Sure it will take time for adoption and for price to go down even more before it hits mainstream. But considering the momentum this technology has right now, mass adoption doesn’t seem too far away.

Augmented reality, you have more than 15 seconds of our attention! In this time and age that’s quite an accomplishment.