Augmented Reality is still razors edge- I myself have not had the chance to use any devices, but that did not stop me from tweeting the cool factor of the BMW example or from my own cognition of the values that can stem from it.

I’ve seen a couple of good uses,you have to bare in mind this is very new onto the scene.

You have the Wellington Zoo newspaper ad: http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2007/augmented-reality-at-wellington-zoo/
Won some awards for Hyperfactory

Then you have the Nike T90 Treasure Hunt, which also won some awards:
http://mobileinc.co.uk/2009/06/i-love-nikes-mobile-marketing/

BMW AR Screensaver + Social upload
http://mobileinc.co.uk/2009/09/bmw-expression-of-joy-campaign-awesome-augmented-reality-app/

You need to give time for agencies to know how to ultilise it and brands to want to take part. If you compare it to something like QR codes, it’s moving at a much faster rate. It’s already appeared on the front of Esquire. A lot of stuff just seems like proof of concept but the BMW piece was awesome, it tied directly into the above the line message.

I’m kinda mobile bias because of the field I work in but I can certainly see the benefits for the web using AR. That social shopper is EXACTLY the badass way it needs to be done. I bet ASOS would jump on that.

@Antão

I’m not gonna lie, I wanna see the Star Wars chest board just like everyone else

@Blake I totally agree on your Convergence Reality. We at YDreams call it Reality Computing…

At Zugara, we’re focusing on utility based executions of Flash AR, and biding our time until Apple opens up real time image processing on the iPhone. I can’t tell you how many blog posts I read that make AR seem like a mobile only thing.

My firm belief is that Augmented Reality will wind up being most frequently used as a melding with motion capture or body recognition to form something I like to call Convergent Reality. This expands upon the current popular thinking around AR, which is just to bring the digital into the real, to also bring the real back into the digital and make the two work together. You can see this type of application in our Webcam Social Shopper, as well as our latest project ZugSTAR (http://bit.ly/1L9QVO)

I think you hit the nail on the head with, “If it’s used correctly it can compliment a good ad campaign,” but how many times have you seen it used correctly. Almost everything I see is just eye candy. I think it’s most important to determine what you want to do before deciding if AR is right for the execution, and not the other way around, as it seems most firms are doing right now.

It’s snowballing pretty quickly though isn’t it? I would love to know your thoughts on why AR is moving so quickly compared to other bit of tech. My feeling is that the pure richness of what you can do always makes people jizz in their pants and become a bit blinded.

The thing is although I know that making the consumer download a app to take part in any campaign is a bit shit and gives you large drop off rates, I never really advise it. This is in early stages and brands are all over it like a rash. We should just be happy they are embracing this kind of thing straight out the gate rather than spending 5 years trying to get them to try it. If it’s used correctly it can compliment a good ad campaign.

I love the tweet “Augmented Reality Goes 3D,” its a bit like “SMS goes mobile”

Great post