You sure have seen Mark Zuckenberg announcing the metaverse. Perhaps it reminded you of that episode from Black Mirror. Well, virtual or augmented reality are no longer just in Hollywood movies, they became a part of our lives just like social media or any other thing. Let me tell you how, but first let’s shed the light on the difference between them.
Augmented reality vs virtual reality
Both change our way of perceiving things in reality. But nope they are not the same things, they’re in fact the opposite. Augmented reality adds digital elements to our existing world, while virtual reality put you in a virtual world.
In a nutshell, VR uses some sort of equipment -like glasses and a headset- to immerse you in a different reality, while you can experience AR using something simple as your smartphone or a TV screen to augment your reality.
With AR engaging users in an innovative way, it is no longer a sci-fi movie thing, it’s becoming more needed every day in digital marketing. So here are 5 ways to get ahead in marketing with augmented reality:
1. Trying products before buying
How many times do you browse products and wish you could try them before purchasing online? AR helps customers understand if the products fit them or not, and facilitate their buying decisions.
JAC did it really well with their activation allowing customers to try the car before buying with an augmented reality experience
2. Virtual tours
Aside from visiting stores physically, AR allows customers to experience a real tour around stores, and find product information.
Take for instance this furniture shop giving you the same experience as visiting their physical store with clickable buttons to know more information about certain products.
3. Building hype around the brand
It works really well in public areas or exhibitions where you can catch people’s attention and create buzz.
Baic Senova at Auto-Mech Egypt Exhibition is a perfect example of capturing the crowd’s attention. Their AR experience included a lion jumping over the car, then sitting on the bonnet so people can pet it and take a picture
4. Revamping tourism
The Egyptian Presidency app wowed us with monuments coming to life on Egyptian banknotes. Many people aren’t familiar with the elements of the currency, so it was a great add-on to encourage tourism for both locals and foreigners.
5. Entertaining customers with gamification
Sparking the child within, Samsung Note 8 engaged its customers with a Treasure Hunt AR mobile game. The game included a map to scan to hunt 8 pirates that would lead you to win a grand prize.
Strategic Benefits Of Augmented Reality
It has past almost three decades since the term augmented reality was added to the technology world. Even though nobody has imagined how AR would become popular, that is exactly what happen. In fact, AR has become a part of everyday life for most business owners. Especially in terms of engaging customers in the virtual aspect because they can not afford to achieve interaction with customers in person.
Many brands took advantage of the AR benefits, that we are going to list in this article. Therefore, if you are questioning whether or not the Augmented Reality app is really worth your investment, you are going to find the answer.
Augmented Reality builds unique and immersive customer experiences
One of the most crucial benefits that Augmented Reality can bring is creating a very special digital experience that makes a perfect bond between the virtual and physical worlds.
Best of all is the fact that neither hardware nor software are necessary for allowing a unique experience. All smartphones and mobile apps are suitable for Augmented Reality. Additionally, with the latest updates in the term of AR, user experience is even more improved since users can take advantage of it through a web browser.
Since you are probably wondering in which terms AR experiences are more unique and better compared to other experiences, we will provide you with an answer. In general, the most common audio-visual experiences that we are familiar with are existing either in the physical or in the digital domain.
Since, Augmented reality blends both of the mentioned realities and connects them, it provides a higher level of the experience uniqueness. AR is placing digital features over physical ones and in that way creates an illusion effect.
Augmented reality eliminates cognitive overload
Many people tried to repair their cars by referring to a manual. However, this is a very bad mistake that people commonly make. This is because in many cases manual supports actually does not help users to fix something. This especially refers to if the model of the car does not resemble the previous car engineering.
This is exactly where cognitive information load comes into place. In general, for the ones that do not know, cognitive overload is happening when your working memory can not process a higher amount of information compared to the amount of information that it can handle.
When this happens, and you are not able to handle it, it will lead to frustration and it will affect your decision-making process. As you can probably conclude, this is exactly why many users that are not experienced enough are struggling to fix something.
Augmented Reality provides competitive differentiation
Since our market is full of products from different brands that come with the same price and quality, brands need to find a way to differentiate themselves and stand out from the competition.
For a long period, the only way brands could highlight their offers and products is by advertising them through traditional channels. However, Augmented reality is now providing them to take a new innovative step of marketing themselves with creative campaigns that will allow them to position their brand higher in the crowded marketplace.
In conclusion
Augmented reality offers an engaging one-of-a-kind experience all businesses whether small or big should try.
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Kim Marks 
Nicola Holder