About a month ago, I wrote an op-ed for Adweek entitled “2010: The Year of Augmented Reality“. What I was trying to convey in the op-ed is that while Mobile will be the key component of AR in the future, right now there are many different advertising and marketing channels that can actually utilize AR in creative and innovative ways. Though I won’t republish the article here (you can read it on Adweek’s site), I did want to include embedded video examples below of how channels such as Interactive Storefront Displays, Digital Billboards, Event Marketing and Point Of Purchase are currently using AR. Web, Mobile and Print get all the press but these examples show how brands should think of AR as being adaptable to pretty much any marketing or advertising channel. If interested in even more examples than below, check out the Facebook Augmented Reality Page which has just about every recent AR example out there. So, without further adieu…
POINT OF PURCHASE
POP might be the most advantageous channel for AR given that a well-planned and executed AR initiative can easily turn consumer purchase interest to intent in a matter of seconds. Kiosk format provides little to no barrier of entry for consumer.
Developed by Metaio
INTERACTIVE DIGITAL BILLBOARDS
Numerous brands could leverage the unique participatory interaction of an interactive billboard.
Developed by Chris O’Shea
EVENT MARKETING
Event Marketing, like point of purchase, is also a great channel for AR, given most consumers will likely already have interest in your brand. Though most of these executions are gimmicks, this channel is maturing.
Developed by Total Immersion
Developed by Metaio
INTERACTIVE STOREFRONT DISPLAYS
AR-based storefront displays can be used in myriad ways to help drive consumers into your store.
Developed by Simon & John
Developed by Jim George & Karolina Sobecka
MUSEUM / PUBLIC WORKS
The binoculars or viewing mechanism mimic how optical AR can function in the future. For now though, AR helps museums become interactive by making history come alive.
Mashup Videos continue to gain traction on the web and the holiday season usually bring out the best of them. The most recent Holiday mashup video? Santa vs. Jack Bauer which you can view below:
SANTA VS. JACK BAUER
Last year, we created a few Santa Mashup Videos to show how to create a Choose Your Own Adventure video using Annotations on YouTube. I’ve listed the 3 most popular videos from that CYOA below:
SANTA & INDIANA JONES VS. THE CLUELESS SWORDSMAN
SANTA VS. CHUCK NORRIS
SANTA VS. AGENT SMITH FROM THE MATRIX
Though Santa and Elves are always popular Mashup material, the reigning Holiday Mashup champ (in our eyes at least) is still this hilarious video featuring the Easter Bunny kicking ass!
THE EASTER BUNNY HATES YOU!
Know of any other great Holiday Mashup Videos? If so, let us know in the comments and we’ll post ‘em! Happy Holidays!!!
Facebook Goes To The Red Carpet With Live Video For American Music Awards – Noticing a trend yet with Live Video broadcasts with integrated real-time commenting (i.e. Social TV)?
I previously wrote about the ABC series Flash Forward’s interactive marketing efforts in a blog post entitled – A New ARG Or Standard Integrated Entertainment Marketing Campaign. I was wondering if Flash Forward would be a standard ARG or raise the bar for interactive storytelling. After watching the series premiere (which looks promising btw), I went back to see how Flash Forward’s online efforts have evolved. Needless to say, they have a good handle on how they want their fans to interact with the show online and have created a compelling experience using the latest emerging media and technology tactics. This is by far one of the best integrated marketing efforts I’ve seen in quite some time.
If you want the overarching strategy and insight into the campaign from ABC, you can view it at AdAge here. And I would also suggest checking out Liz Miller’s breakdown of the Flash Forward tactical executions over at NewTeeVee. The campaign utilizes some of the newer emerging media and technology components for Interactive Marketing including:
An Augmented Reality experience (which admittedly feels rushed and not connected with the campaign – where’s the social media integration with the AR?)
Though most of these components on their own aren’t mind blowing, it’s the sum of all the parts that makes the campaign a very integrated experience. However, one component that stands out is the Mosaic Collective as it holds the most promise to make the weekly viewing of Flash Forward a more personal experience.
(VERY SMALL SPOILER ALERT BELOW)
In the series, the FBI has setup a site where people can post their Flash Forwards with the hope that the FBI can then start to link clues together through people that are common to each Flash Forward. The Mosaic Collective site functions in the same way allowing people to sign up and upload information. On the surface, this is standard UGC content being uploaded to the site but the various methods of connecting content (through data visualization) is engaging and worth checking out. This is also where there could be a potential tie-in to the show with UGC content slowly being integrated into the show through essential storylines or secondary characters. This is obviously difficult to pull off but it would help break the boundaries between how these entertainment support sites interact with their viewers by taking the reality and integrating it with the fantasy.
The overall campaign borrows quite a bit from Lost, but that is a good thing as Flash Forward is targeting the same fanbase. I’m hoping this campaign evolves some more especially with the Mosaic Collective. It’s definitely worth checking out though to see how interactive can be leveraged to create a compelling integrated interactive campaign and enhanced story driven experience.
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.
