By: Helen Anglim

What comes to your mind when you think of augmented reality (AR)— is the meteoric rise of popular games like Pokemon GO, which allow users to interact with the real world to earn points.

According to an eMarketer report, there was also a 33 percent growth in brand interest in AR advertising from 2016 to 2017?

While initially popular in the gaming world, AR is taking on a new identity — especially within advertising. It’s presenting exciting opportunities for brands to reach massive audiences in novel and unique ways, building customer loyalty and brand love.

Over the winter holidays, we worked with Home Depot to design an AR mobile ad unit that placed a Christmas tree right into a user’s physical space, bringing festive cheer and merriment.

Brands can also do much more than create just an entertaining AR app; they can hone in on issues that consumers need solved or want more information on. Acura reached over 3.5 million people through a live stream of an AR-equipped driving event. The car company set up a race track and equipped drivers with AR-based helmets that depicted them driving through what looked like dangerous and tricky situations. The heart of the experience directly mapped back to Acura’s mission, which was showcasing how safe and manageable their cars are.

With the success of geolocation and face detection in well-known apps, there’s also an opportunity for these technologies to be implemented in a brand’s AR experience. For a brand like L’Oréal, implementing facial detection made a lot of sense; it allowed customers to virtually try on makeup before purchasing it.

Brands might consider it a huge jump to move to Augmented Reality, but it’s at the heart of immersive video today. The future of advertising will include AR. Don’t miss out on the opportunities that AR can bring to your brand.