We’d like to introduce you to the two newest online retailers to license and launch our ecommerce augmented reality software, The Webcam Social Shopper (WSS):
K-BEE LEOTARDS – A U.S. based retailer of girl’s gymnastics leotards. (Link)
LAZY LAZY – Based in Denmark, it’s an online shopping centre, where unique brand shops (such as Diesel) are displayed side by side in their own unique environments. (Link)
We’re thankful to work with retailers that “get” that the future of ecommerce is social, visual and interactive. And as you can see, this isn’t just U.S. based thinking. It’s global. We now have clients in Russia, Italy, Poland, Denmark, the U.K. and of course the U.S. And we have retailers in Turkey, Brazil, Malaysia and the Czech Republic in production…
Speaking of being thankful, it is the season of giving, so we’d like to let you all know that for the next two weeks we’re offering (new) retailers a 90-Day risk free trial of WSS. So if you’re a retailer that’s interested in checking out what WSS can do for your shoppers, now’s the time to pull the trigger. Or, if you know someone that might be interested in this offer, please do us a favor and share this blog post with them.
For anyone that’s interested in licensing WSS, please contact us at info(at)Zugara(dot)com.
You gotta love it when you’re “randomly” checking out a video on CNN (because it’s titled “Augmented Reality Revamps Online Sales”) and you stumble upon the fact that a demo of your product is heavily featured. Of course, it would have been nice to have actually been credited for our work… All in all, it’s still an exciting day for us. If you’re interested, the video is below (the section featuring the Webcam Social Shopper begins around 47 seconds in).
This year we’ve seen some pretty cool “out of home” branded augmented reality executions. Below are videos from Disney, National Geographic and Lynx showcasing their work. As you’ll see, they are pretty similar in concept, and yet subtly different in execution.
It’s always fun to watch people’s reactions in these videos. Part amazement, part wonder and part pure joy. I like all three executions, but personally, the National Geographic’s one is my favorite. Admittedly, I’m a bit of a nerd about NatGeo (among other things). I love that channel. But I also love that they used some gesture controls to make the AR experience more interactive.
So what do you think? Which one do you like best? I’d love to get your thoughts below…
Highlight: According to Mashable “many of the character interactions are done live. That means that the characters can respond directly to how guests are moving and reactions from the crowds.”
When it comes to Cancer, the importance of regular self examinations cannot be overstated. But, what’s the right way to administer those exams? The fact is, most people don’t know how to properly examine themselves, and many are too embarrassed to ask…
So we teamed up with Saatchi & Saatchi Mexico to create a Breast Cancer Awareness application for Olay that utilizes an animated silhouette (and a motion capture interface) to educate women on the proper technique to use when giving themselves a breast exam. All women need is the right Olay t-shirt and a webcam, and they are good to go.
This is yet another example of how augmented reality can be used to facilitate a particular experience, one that in this case educates in an interactive manner.
Hey Folks! Our newest augmented reality brand engagement is live, and you can check it out here. Unfortunately, we’re not cleared to discuss any of the details around the execution (in this blog) so this is going to be the extent of this post. But, you’re a smart crowd, so I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to figure it out once you click on the link above…
Note: The engagement actually launches as a pop-up off the site, so please make sure you allow pop-ups on the page.
One of the great things about ecommerce is that ROI has always been seemingly straight forward and easy to measure. All the necessary data is right there, at every retailer’s fingertips. They know what they invested, and they can measure the direct effect that that investment had on their business. But it turns out that in today’s marketplace, only measuring an online investment’s affect online no longer gives an accurate look into that investment’s true ROI. That’s because what retailers do online, directly affects whether or not they are driving sales in store too.
In a recent Forbes op-ed Raj Rao (global director, eCommerce and Digital Marketing, 3M Corporate Marketing) cites a ComScore report that states that 2/3rds of shoppers begin their shopping process online, usually on the retail site itself. The report also notes that nearly half of shoppers who begin their search on retail sites make a purchase in the physical store, while 40% transact online. Think about that. More of a retailer’s site visitors will end up purchasing in store, than on the actual site itself. Obviously, measuring ROI is no longer as straight forward as it once seemed.
The data above, and his own experiences point Rao towards the following conclusion: “Marketers must rise to the challenge. The solution isn’t banner ads or page take-overs that consumers despise. Instead we need to do the hard work of true marketing and ask: What is the consumer experience at retail sites, and how can I positively impact this?”
It probably comes as no shock to you, but we here at Zugara agree with Mr. Rao. Today, online retailers are content providers. Publishers. And just like in any other content driven business, the retailers that produce the best content, the best experience, will win. So what do you think? What stores are “doing it right”?
(Warning: Shameless Self Promotion) Oh, and speaking of online shopping experiences… have you heard of our product: The Webcam Social Shopper?
Are you familiar with SocialVibe? Odds are, you’ve seen their work. They power user-initiated brand engagements on some of the web’s most visited networks. Networks like Zynga Games and Pandora. If you’d like more information on SocialVibe, Fast Company ran a great piece on them the other week.
Recently, we partnered with SocialVibe and Deutsch to create the “Anthem Blue Cross Webcam Exam” for Zynga’s network. It’s a fun, interactive Augmented Reality “Check-Up” that reminds people of the importance of seeing a Doctor regularly. It actually uses facial tracking to allow people to naturally interact with several Doctor’s tools, like that thinga-ma-bobby that they use to look at your eye (sorry for using such technical language).
Below, is a demo link for those of you that want to check it out. I’ve also embedded a few screencaps below as a mini walk-through to showcase the engagement. I’d love to get your thoughts on the execution in the comment section, and as always, you can find me on twitter here.
Since we launched the Webcam Social Shopper (WSS) on Banana Flame we’ve encountered the same question a few times: “Are people really using it?” I figured you might be interested in the answer to that question too, so I wanted to share with you the deck embedded below. It details shopper data around WSS usage, engagement, and ROI.
As you’ll see, yes, people are using augmented reality and they are deeply engaged with it when they are.
Finally, please keep an eye on this blog over the next few weeks as retailers in the UK, Denmark, Russia, Italy and the US are scheduled to launch WSS on their sites soon, and we’ll be announcing them each here when they do.
Oh, and for the record, it looks like SlideShare decided to take some creative liberties with our formatting when they converted the .ppt. I’m sorry about that…
In the past we’ve addressed some of the technical limitations that we see with the mobile augmented reality space in general. In this post, I want to get very specific and address why we don’t currently develop our ecommerce augmented reality software for the mobile market (as we get this question a fair amount). For those of you that are unfamiliar with our software, The Webcam Social Shopper, I’ve embedded an introductory video below.
Sorry, for some reason we’re having trouble embedding the video. If you don’t see it above, you can view it on YouTube here.
Okay, so back to the question at hand: Why don’t we develop for mobile? The short answer? It’s simply not strategic to do so. Let me explain our thinking:
The Addressable Market Is Just A Fraction Of The Computer Market
Our shopping application functions like a mirror, so that means people need to have their screen, and their camera facing the same direction (AKA a forward facing camera). For the computer market, that’s just the way it works… but in the mobile space, that essentially leaves us with two consumer devices: the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2.
Like all businesses, we need to be laser focused and strategic with both our financial and human resources. So let’s look at where we can have a greater impact now. Let’s look at the potential consumer reach for PCs, iPad 2s, and iPhone 4s:
Sources: In September, The Daily Beast stated that 30 Million iPads had been sold. Back in March at the iPad 2 launch event Steve Jobs noted that 15 Million iPads had already been sold.
iPhone 4: 50 to 75 Million sold (note: we don’t know how many of these are replacements for a previously purchased iPhone 4).
Sources: At the recent iPhone 4S event, Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that the iPhone 4 accounts for half of all iPhone’s sold. Back in March Steve Jobs noted that since 2007 Apple had sold 100 Million iPhones.
Okay, so let’s put the combined iPad 2 and iPhone 4 sales at the high end of that range: 90 million units. It’s an impressive number, but those sales totals are just 6% of the PCs that Intel states are “in use”… and it should be noted that Intel also states that PCs are selling at a rate of 1 million per day. And here’s another metric for you: 93% of digital traffic is consumed by PCs. That means that the entire Smartphone and tablet market (i.e. not just Apple’s two most recent product launches) accounts for only 7% of digital traffic consumption.
So, when looking at the addressable markets, it’s pretty clear that the computer has the upper hand.
It Would Be A Horrible Experience For The Shopper
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that the PC market didn’t dwarf the mobile market. Let’s assume everyone had a Smartphone and they all had forward forcing cameras. There’s still a rather large usability issue keeping us from developing for those devices. And that’s the arm length of the average person. If you noticed, in the video embedded above, the young woman is standing roughly 4 – 6 feet away from her computer. That’s because she’s visualizing if a dress’s style is right for her, so she needs to see her entire body. If you’re holding a Smartphone in your hand, you just can’t hold the phone far enough away to have that experience. And at the end of the day, if we aren’t providing an amazing experience for the shopper, than what the heck is the point?
Now I get it, mobile, especially the iPhone and the iPad get an overwhelming amount of media attention. Are they revolutionary products? Yes. I’m not debating that. Is the future bright for mobile? Of course. But that’s the future, and as a company we’re focused on how we can make the biggest impact in people’s lives today (and over the next 5 years).
Did you know that one day after download, only 20% of users come back and run an iPhone app? And after a month, that number drops to 5% (chart). For us, it’s not about producing an augmented reality app that people won’t use but will get us covered by the press. It’s about measureable impact. It’s about disrupting the way people shop online today, and providing them with a significantly better experience. On computers we can do that. On mobile devices, we can’t.
What do you think? Are we right? Wrong? As always, you can find me on twitter here.
In the past we’ve shared the data we’ve collected on our augmented reality work. But we truly love it when others in the industry share their findings as well. Below, you’ll find data from a study that the folks over at Hidden Creative conducted on Augmented Reality and the Sales Process. I’ll let their information below speak for itself, but I’d love to get your thoughts in the comments…
From Hidden’s Blog:
The Methodology
100 people were shown a display advert for a child’s toy, while another 100 people were shown the child’s toy as an interactive augmented reality experience. Each person was then asked two questions:
Would you consider buying this toy for a child?
How much would you consider paying for the toy?
The duration of engagement the audience had with each format was also monitored. Let’s look at the headline figures:
Likelihood to buy
After viewing the 2D printed display advert, out of 100 parents, 45% would consider buying the toy for a child. Out of those who viewed the augmented reality experience, 74% of the parents would consider buying the toy for a child.What we found even more intriguing was the price point at which the parents were prepared to make the purchase.
We Are Organized Chaos (WAOC) is Zugara’s (www.zugara.com) interactive marketing and advertising blog where we’ll be featuring some great projects and discussing upcoming trends in the digital world. Work — good and bad — will be critiqued. Hope you’ll enjoy reading our insights and thoughts on interactive.
