Would You Use Augmented Reality?
The latest gimmick seems to be AR – Augmented Reality – which Wikipedia defines as “a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery – creating a mixed reality.”
Take a look at this example from Zugara:
Even Esquire Magazine is experimenting with AR:
The technology is certainly eye-catching and interesting but I’m not sure yet how it’s going to drive business. Some questions I’m asking myself are:
Will it encourage people to spend more?
Will it encourage people to have a conversation with the company?
Will it encourage people to have a conversation ABOUT the company with their friends?
Will it encourage people to spend more time on the company’s site and come back more often?
The first example above has people trying on clothes using AR. I don’t think a gimmick like that is really going to help many people buy clothes but it MIGHT help in the decision process and it MIGHT keep you on the site a while longer than you usually would. Having an app like that on your site might set it apart from your competitors sites enough that people will talk about you on the nets but I can’t see it how it will encourage people to have a conversation WITH a company about their products more than usual. And it might increase return rates, but I’m not convinced about that either. I think its one of those gimmicks that, once you’ve played around with it for ten minutes, you’ve seen everything you want to see – at least on THAT site. Another site with a new AR app will still be interesting.
What about the Esquire approach? Is there something in here for print media? The examples used in the Esquire teaser look like they would cost a small fortune to produce. So they better be delivering results, either for the magazine’s sales or for the magazine’s advertisers. I might buy a copy of this edition of Esquire to play around with it, but again I doubt that it’ll have a lasting impact unless they can find an application for the technology that is lasting.
As I said over and over in my presentation at the Social Media conference in Melbourne last week, the best way for businesses to use social media is NOT about gimmicks. It’s about creating an ongoing conversation with and about your company. Gimmicks might get you a few minutes of attention spike, but then what? Unless, of course, you use that attention spike to let people know that there is an ongoing conversation that they can participate in. That makes more sense. But you have to make sure you have the fundamentals in place before you play around with viral tactics and, let’s be honest, 99.999% of businesses in Australia don’t even understand what the fundamentals of social media taste like yet.
