Augmented Reality (AR). If you don’t know what it is, here is a little refresher. You may know what it is, or heck, you may even use it yourself on the daily. But have you ever wondered how your company’s competition is using it to beat you down to a pulp? If you’ve never wondered this or given any thought about AR usage in your business, then you are already behind the curve.
Have no fear! We have scoured the internet for you and have come up with ways that you can regain ground and become the innovator you are destined to be. So, without further ado, here are the top 5 realistic ways to use augmented reality to get ahead of the competition.
Related: Augmented Reality | What’s the Big Deal with AR, Anyway?
1. Print Mailers
One of the most effective, and easiest, uses of AR is to incorporate them into your print mailers. Print is on the rise, and people are loving the interactivity. You need to take advantage of this fact and include AR in some way as part of that interaction.
How do you do that? Well, a simple QR code that displays a 3D image when a phone is held up to it is one way. You could also develop a simple AR app that promotes your business through the interaction of the person’s phone and their living room for example. The possibilities are limitless in this area because print and AR are both so versatile.
2. Your Tradeshow Booth
Nothing gets the attention of the largest purchasing demographic (Millennials) like cool tech. If you want to attract the trend setters of the current world and reach new and lucrative opportunities, you need to make yourself look like you know what’s up. One of the ways you can do this is through incorporating AR into your tradeshow booth.
One prime example is the Microsoft demo when the company showed off their video game “Minecraft,” by using the innovative AR tech, HoloLens. In the demo, the presenters allow the audience to see a live feed of what the players was seeing as he played the game. He was able to show the potential of video gaming in AR and the audience was able to watch in real-time.
Now, you don’t have to be as extravagant as Microsoft, but you do need to provide an effective yet simple experience for your booth visitors. AR will help you showcase your innovations more clearly than what a PowerPoint can provide because your potential customer will be able to experience it vs just hearing about it.
Related: Amazing Ways to Integrate Print into Your Digital Campaign
3. Product demos
You are in the business of making innovations and changing your respective industry. Sometimes though, that means your product may have concepts or design choices that need just a bit of explaining. To explain these concepts, you can use an AR demo.
Yes, we just talked about demos in the previous point, but this is the demo you take to your clients. For example, if you are a pizza maker, then you could use AR to display 3D images of your pizza to potential investors. If you are a car manufacturer, you could use AR to highlight unique designs or potential ground-breaking new tech.
4. Viral marketing
You’ve seen the ads: Some super cool new technology is hitting the market and you have “lit af” people being excited for it, yet you don’t know what in the world the tech does… besides making paid actors smile and break dance. Perhaps you have even released one of these ads yourself. While it may look cool in the production studio, the commercial is forgettable.
AR can take that commercial and help make it viral. Let users have something to interact with while watching the commercial, for instance. A simple AR phone app that displays your product while they are watching the commercial is all that is needed to put you ahead in your industry.
5. Corporate events
You go to a corporate speaking event. Maybe there are 100 decision makers in the room and it is your time to make an impression among your peers. Don’t be that same old boring company that just brings a PowerPoint and talks for too long.
Liven up your presentation with AR. This goes along with your demo but bring it to the corporate event so that those decision makers are seeing your company in a fresh light. You will get them excited about your product and no one will leave the room without knowing who you are and what you are about.