Raphael Thys
Industry experts told Insider that brands can captivate the hearts and minds of consumers by applying the latest extended-reality trends to their marketing initiatives.
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- Marketers are using extended reality, or XR, to elevate campaigns, products, and services.
- XR tech, such as augmented, virtual, and mixed realities, allows for immersive consumer experiences.
- It has also helped marketers solve issues like geographical limitations and reach more customers.
- This article is part of "Build IT," a series about digital tech and innovation trends that are disrupting industries.
When the publisher Books of Discovery wanted a new way to empower educators and students with its manual-therapy textbooks, the company saw an opportunity in the form of augmented reality. By projecting computer-based visuals into the real world, this technology could enhance the learning experience for readers.
The company partnered with Ludenso, a tech platform that describes itself as "the world's leading augmented reality authoring platform, built specifically for publishers." The collaboration meant readers could enjoy an enhanced reading experience with added AR features like 3D models and videos.
This has helped Ludenso and Books of Discovery connect with a wider consumer base while achieving "better user engagement" and showcasing "unique offerings and products regardless of location," Eirik G. Wahlstrøm, the cofounder and CEO of Ludenso, told Insider.
Eirik G. Wahlstrøm, the cofounder and CEO of Ludenso.
The partnership exemplifies a noticeable trend as extended reality — an umbrella term for augmented, virtual, and mixed realities — has emerged as a highly effective marketing tool that companies can't afford to ignore.
Many of the world's biggest brands have leveraged extended reality, or XR, technology for their marketing efforts, including Puma, which launched a Metaverse platform where customers could buy shoes, and Etsy, which offered an AR shopping experience called The Etsy Home, featuring curated items available for purchase.
XR-based marketing campaigns are helping solve some of the biggest challenges in marketing, industry experts told Insider, including reaching and maintaining a global audience, scaling customer events, and personalizing campaigns.
XR is the future of marketing
Sol Rogers, the global director of innovation at the creative studio Magnopus, described XR technology as a way to foster brand loyalty and memorable experiences. It allows brands to enter an "entirely new dimension of engagement and interaction" by creating "transmedia storytelling," he told Insider.
Sol Rogers, the global director of innovation at Magnopus.
"When brands offer these immersive, interactive storytelling experiences that transcend traditional boundaries, brands can engage with their audiences on a deeper level, allowing them to get closer to the brand's story, connect with its products, and understand its values," Rogers said.
Steven Van Belleghem — who's helped companies such as Disney, Microsoft, and Booking.com devise customer-experience strategies — agrees that XR technologies will transform how brands build and maintain customer relationships.
Steven Van Belleghem, a customer-experience expert and the author of the customer-strategy book, "A Diamond in the Rough."
"Rather than just sell a product to a customer, brands can set up virtual worlds to host events where they can entertain, engage, and interact with a community of brand followers on a whole new level," he said.
A range of XR tech is available for marketing
Marketers have a range of XR technologies to choose from when developing immersive marketing campaigns.
Simon Windsor, the cofounder and co-CEO of the virtual content production company Dimension Studio, said marketers could use AR as "a creative canvas" for creating realistic digital content.
"The marketing applications of this technology span product visualization, virtual try-on, selfie filters, interactive games, and 3D brand experiences — or simply a more engaging way for customers to access information," he told Insider.
Simon Windsor, the cofounder and co-CEO of Dimension Studio.
Windsor said virtual reality — which provides entirely virtual environments, unlike AR, which combines real and virtual spaces — would enable brands to develop "fully immersive experiences" where customers can experience a different world.
He added that emerging technologies will play an increasingly important role in XR-based marketing campaigns. These include generative AI; real-time rendering, which produces real-time animations; volumetric capture, the process of turning humans, locations, and objects into 3D holograms; and neural reconstruction, the use of AI for generating highly realistic 3D graphics.
Apple is one company that's "pushing the boundaries" of XR-based marketing, Van Belleghem said. Many marketers are especially excited about Apple's soon-to-be-released Vision Pro headset because it "promises a truly immersive way to experience and interact with friends, apps, entertainment, and brands," he added.
XR to the rescue
XR technology is also helping marketers solve many of their biggest day-to-day challenges.
Windsor said XR's ability to bridge the gap between the real and virtual worlds helps marketers catch their consumers' attention and "reach their audiences wherever they are."
One way brands can do this is by sharing a QR code with users, enabling them to open an AR app where they can view products and engage in immersive experiences. "Simply by utilizing the fact that their target audience has a phone in their pocket, brands can unlock a new layer of creativity," Windsor said.
Arif Miah, the creative strategy director of Mud Orange.
Creating hyper-personalized brand campaigns is another common challenge faced by marketers, said Arif Miah, the creative strategy director of the design and advertising agency Mud Orange. But XR could change this by enabling companies to "live in people's personal spaces to provide curated and personalized brand messages."
XR technology also makes scalability easier, Van Belleghem said, because it provides a "scale that real-life events simply cannot match."
For example, Mattel's Barbie DreamHouse Tycoon experience on Roblox has allowed millions of Barbie fans to build their own virtual homes.
Getting XR marketing campaigns right
An essential first step in successful XR-based marketing is to understand the target audience and ensure campaigns provide value to customers' lives, said Rogers. "If you don't know who you're creating these experiences for out the gate, you won't be able to build authentic connections with them," he explained.
Windsor recommended that marketing departments take a "staggered approach" to XR adoption, which he described as "steps to explore, test, and learn about the potential of the medium." This will help them "learn the capabilities of the technology, test potential workflows, and identify what works for your brand," he said.
Meanwhile, marketers must remember that XR is still a new and evolving field with a small user base, Van Belleghem said, so it's a good time to experiment with it and learn in the process.
"You may want to start small and note that the measurement and tracking we're used to with other marketing channels isn't there yet, which makes determining the return on investment difficult," he said.
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