We Are Organized Chaos

Zugara Launches Online Shopping App Utilizing Augmented Reality And Motion Capture

June 23, 2009, Los Angeles – Here at Zugara, we’re proud to announce the launch of our newest application, The Webcam Social Shopper. Coupling the functionality of both Augmented Reality and Motion Capture, this application will allow anyone with a webcam to shop online right from within their video feed. We like to think of it as “Augmented Reality meets Utility”. This app allows you to seemingly hold articles of clothing up in front of yourself to see “how they look”. And the Motion Capture allows the app to track your movements so you can interact with the site (e.g. cycle through a product’s various colors/styles or take a picture of yourself so you can get immediate feedback from friends on Facebook) while standing several feet away from your computer’s controls. No extra downloads, no new plug-in, no consumer headache.

To see the application in action, check out our video below.

(UPDATE: If you’re having trouble accessing the embedded video – here is the direct YouTube URL)

Now that you’ve seen the application in its “Alpha State”, think about the potential an app like this has as we partner with brands to allow their consumers to do things like:

• Livestream their webcam’s feed to friends and loved ones, and get comments and feedback right next to the application in real time.
• Receive “clothing care packages” from loved ones who might be somewhere else in the country and set up times to “shop together”… online.
• Enter their measurements into the app and get a “fitted image”.
• Match entire outfits at the same time, both top and bottom.
• Shop right within a branded Facebook application.

It’s not a secret that friends/family recommendations influence a consumer’s purchase decision and beat any other “consumer touchpoint”. Now, we can help brands empower their consumers to integrate their friends and family into their online shopping process like never before. The thinking is that this application will help bridge the gap between how people like to shop offline and how they are forced to shop online, subsequently providing an enhanced interactive shopping experience for the consumer and increased sales for the brand. So, what do you think? Please, feel free to share this post with anyone and everyone, or embed the video above in your own blog. And, as always, we’d love to know your thoughts below…

(UPDATE: We’ve partnered with RichRelevance to integrate their recommendation engine into WSS and create a completely unique application dubbed Fashionista. Fashionista is currently live on Tobi.com and you can read more about that launch on Fast Company.)

About Zugara

Zugara is an interactive marketing agency with a passion for emerging media and technologies. Unlike most agencies, we don’t claim to do everything: Interactive Video, Social Media, Mobile Marketing, and Website & Application Development are our core competencies. Since our doors opened in 2001, we’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the world’s best brands such as Reebok, Sony Computer Entertainment Of America, Toyota, Activision, Jelly Belly, Casio, The Air Force, and Lexus to create strategic interactive campaigns that focus on accomplishing their business objectives. Based in Los Angeles, we’re currently in the process of expanding, and opening our second office in New York (www.zugara.com) (www.zugarastudios.com).

For more information on The Webcam Social Shopper or ZugMo Technology, please contact ar@zugara.com. For all other inquiries, please contact info@zugara.com.

Copyright 2009 ZugMo Technology
Copyright 2009 Webcam Social Shopper
Copyright 2009 Zugara Inc.
Patent Pending

What Makes A Successful YouTube Brand Contest?

There’s moments in life when a new gadget or toy comes along that you might look at and go, “Man, I wish I had that when I was a kid growing up.” For me, it’s pretty much the entire Internet.

I get that same “Only If” feeling every time I see a new YouTube “Brand” Contest and some of the creativity that Gen Y is able to put on display for them.   For those who are not familiar with YouTube Brand Contests, they’re exactly what they sound like – contests sponsored by brands that YouTube promotes and enlists their vast community to partake in.  You can see a whole list of them here.

Granted, some of the contests are very lame or look like an idea that was once cool but was subject to corporate legal counsel’s tool of ‘cool campaign death’ – the track changes function on Word.  However, a recent YouTube Contest caught my eye and is a very good example of a contest that does everything right execept in one key area (more on that below).  This would be the Slam Dunk Challenge presented by Nissan.  Sure, enlisting amateur slam dunk videos is not new (we pitched this type of idea 6 years ago to a brand we worked with that got whacked by legal) but this is a great example of a YouTube contest that appeals to the core demographic of YouTube – Gen Y.  So what are the key elements for a successful YouTube Brand Contest?

• Cool contest idea? Uh Slam Dunk (pun intended.)
• Timeliness? Big check. Right smack dab in the middle of the most exciting NBA playoffs in years…
• Authenticity factor? NBA Athlete judges. Check.  And bonus points for getting Chris Bosh and Jalen Rose who both have very active YouTube channels.
• Brand revelenacy to Gen Y? Check.  But only if you’re 35 and younger.  If you’re driving a Z over the age of 35 or trying to show how you can slam dunk, we need to have a talk…
• Promotion? Not only is this promoted off of YouTube’s blog but also on the YouTube Channels for Chris Bosh and Jalen Rose.
• Active Community Participation (i.e. entries)? Here’s where we run into problems. Though there’s a few quality entries like the video embedded below, there are only 95 total entries, many of which have been ‘removed by the user’. For a contest that’s enlisting NBA talent, a cool Gen Y brand (Nissan Z) and an appealing idea, you would think it would be a no-brainer that people would be lining up with submissions.  But there’s a reason why (below the embed video)…

Prizing or in this case, lack of it. It doesn’t matter how cool a YouTube Contest is – If the prize sucks, you’re not going to get many people to make the effort to shoot a video for it.  Any brand manager that’s run any type of contest before knows that.  So it’s all the more confusing for this contest once you try to find what the actual prizes are.  From looking through everything, it looks like it’s just a chance to hang out with the Team Flight Brothers…really?  I assumed (like probably most initial entrants) that the prize was a Nissan Z.  Granted that’s definitely a high-end prize in a down economy, but let me know what you think on just an initial look at the home page graphic below:

I get that Nissan needs to promote the Z, but in this instance, it’s definitely over-promoted to the point that you would think it’s part of the actual contest.  Maybe that’s the reason there were only 95 total submissions when, with the idea and talent / brand involved, they should have had at least 10X that amount of submissions.  Other than the glaring omission of any intriguing prizing, the rest of the campaign is completely solid and is a good example of some initial requirements you’ll need to get started on your own YouTube Brand Contest.

P.S. (ZUGARA PROMOTION ALERT!) We’ve had our own hits/misses with YouTube contests for our clients but the best part of these is seeing the actual creativity put into some of the videos.   This is still one of my favorite videos from a past Dream Digs YouTube Brand Contest we ran 2 years ago for Casio and there were substantial prizes involved which led to many quality entries…