APN Outdoor is jumping on augmented reality technology early to stay ahead of the market and attract a wider base of advertisers as the technology develops.
The out-of-home advertising company’s Transit Technology uses QR codes and recently developed near field communication (NFC) to increase consumer engagement with printed advertisements in environments where they spend a lot of time.
A recent campaign for online clothes retailer The Iconic let commuters on buses around Australia tap an NFC coded point or scan a QR code on printed advertising and get access to a link to download The Iconic’s app along with a $10 voucher for their next purchase.
[Related: More outdoor news]
This follows a trial campaign with a technology company that ran across 150 buses with 2000 NFC or QR Code points with 800 advertising panels recorded 5500 interactions over four weeks, five times more than the total of an average outdoor campaign featuring technology by provider TapIt and 31 per cent more interactions via an NFC phone than the overall TapIt outdoor campaign average.
Advertisers can track their campaign’s success with fortnightly analysis on location, frequency, device interaction and time-of-day usage.
The company joins a growing number of media firms dabbling in AR in a trend that could increase the value of print ads and lead to more work for printers.
APN Outdoor chief executive Richard Herring says AR campaigns add an interactive element to an advertiser’s campaign, increasing the value of their printed campaign.
“It further reinforces the message on the printed campaign and drive action to a specific website or offer or coupon,” he says.
“It is where outdoor attention becomes ‘intention’ – where the ad can now prompt a behaviour from the consumer, like downloading something on their smartphone.”
APN Outdoor sales general manager Mark Fairhurst says 77 per cent of bus commuters own smartphones and the average bus trip takes 37 minutes.
“The opportunity for advertisers to reach large-scale audiences for a sustained period of time makes Transit Technology broader than anything else currently in the outdoor market,” he says.
[Related: More augmented reality news]
Herring says the company wants to get in early on new technologies like augmented reality and will expand its offerings when an opportunity occurs to benefit clients.
“We want to be able to understand where these emerging technologies are going and be able to follow improvements, so it is best that we get in early,” he says.
“Commuters are a captive audience and looking for things to do, so there is good potential.”
The Iconic managing director Adam Jacobs says the campaign provides a space to engage the market in transit.
“Discovering the latest fashion on The Iconic mobile site or app is much more fun than thinking about your to-do list on the way to work,” he says.
"E-commerce is fast becoming M-commerce and with up to 50 per cent of visits to The Iconic coming from a mobile device, we wanted to find a scalable campaign that drove interaction with Australians on their phones.”
Comment below to have your say on this story.
If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at editorial@sprinter.com.au.
Sign up to the Sprinter newsletter