Augmented Reality in Advertising
Build it and they shall come.
Although the technology has existed to created Augmented Reality for a while, there hasn’t until recently been an effective way to harness its power. That’s until Total Immersion demonstrated the true power of Augmented Reality. They nailed it to the extent that they own the idea of the Augmented Reality Platform, at least as advertisers know it. Pure genius. They are to AR what Google is to Search and what Selotape is to sticky tape. They own the space. At the risk of sounding like a shill for Total Immersion it should be noted that they have to date created the most versatile applications of AR in the form of Kiosks, Websites, Interactive Brochures, Computer games and even mobile applications.
Equally as impressive is perhaps the fact that since 1999 Total Immersion has been developing the software to integrate 3D objects into live video. That’s sort of the whole point.
So why only now are we seeing it as a mainstream advertising solution? Well, having said that, a few examples of incredibly well done Augmented Reality ads have been:
The GE smartgrid website by NorthKingdom. This is one example that doesn’t require any special software to be installed on your computer. (We’ll get to the pitfalls of AR later though.) 2008
GE AR
BMW Z4 this year was a great little piece. The polygon count on the models is finally high enough to be appreciated as 3D modeling goes. 2009
The last is an oldie but a goodie, Wellington Zoo by Hyperfactory. It is one of the earlier if not the first and more primitive Mobile AR examples. It’s quite deservingly an award-winning example. 2006
