An emerging technology promises to combine print and digital with unprecedented levels of consumer engagement and could turn the tide for print by allowing it to literally leap off the page.
Augmented reality (AR) allows content providers to translate embedded data in printed targets, like a poster or the page of a newspaper, into fully immersive experiences for consumers viewing it through a smartphone, tablet or glasses and contact lenses with viewers built in. Pictures in a magazine could come to life like in Harry Potter, movie posters could become trailers, and billboard ads could change daily.
The idea is so enticing that Australia’s third biggest printer, Blue Star, has created an entirely new division to exploit this emerging technology, Blue Star Interactive, devoted to producing end-to-end AR campaigns for clients using printed materials as the catalyst.
The man tasked with running it is David Francis, an enthusiastic AR practitioner who comes with two years experience as a Silicon Valley consultant on campaigns for brands like 20th Century Fox and Target. He says before long brands will be viewed and experienced overlaid in mixed reality, and audiences will expect it.
“The primary way that customers will interact with the world and your brand is in your hands right now, and before long it will literally be in front of your eyes,” he says. “This isn’t about flashing a brand up in someone’s vicinity and calling it an impression or an eyeball.
“Through this medium not only can you see and hear a product but you can interact with it, see it from any angle and engage your sense of the world around you. When you experience something with all your senses, that’s when you anchor it to your subconscious.”
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Blue Star’s new venture has the enthusiastic support of managing director Geoff Selig, who says printed images are the gateway to the AR experience.
“I think this reinforces the power of emerging technologies working in tandem with traditional technologies like print, particularly in the direct mail space in terms of big data and personalised targeted one-to-one communications.”
Francis was joined at Blue Star Interactive’s launch party by David Lorenzini, former Keyhole.com (Google Earth) director and head of a company that develops Google Glass applications, who likens AR to the birth of the internet and the evolution of mobile phones, and says AR will ‘supercharge’ the print business.
“By 2020 there will be movie quality special effects inside the real world, you’ll have to lift your glasses to see if something or someone is really there,” he says.
Lorenzini says blending consumer data with the experience enables advertisers to offer a completely personalised experience for each customer that moves them to action much faster than any other medium. People could see the same poster, billboard or magazine ad in their own language, specifically tailored to their interests and values. Sharing, purchasing options and related content could be accessible all at the same time, reducing the effort required for consumers to make advertisers money.
“The printed page can be a lot more than meets the eye, and I think we are going to see more adoption of this technology once the business impact kicks in,” he says.
Many advertisers are already starting to dip their toes in the water and Francis and Lorenzini predict this will explode in the next few years as the technology matures. AR targets on Lego boxes have allowed shoppers to see a 3D model of the assembled toy, Ikea buyers can place a page from a catalogue in their house and see the furniture superimposed there, and News Ltd has used its News Alive app to make a picture of a yoga instructor in their Body & Soul section stand up and give a yoga instruction.
It’s not just big printers like Blue Star providing solutions; upstart creative outfits in regional areas like Bundaberg’s BundyAR are pumping out work for local clients keen to improve their consumer engagement. Managing director Tim Fayre says his team have been working 16 hour days on some projects to meet demand. He says being able to update and personalise advertising means companies can get more value from print and are more likely to invest heavily in it.
“You only get 12 seconds of attention for a print ad, but with AR you can increase that to 90 seconds. You also have more time to get a message across – TV ads are usually only 30 seconds but we design AR up to 2.5 minutes.
“We are trying to make the technology affordable for small and medium businesses – they can provide a better than TV experience without the high expense of TV ads.”
The other aspect of AR is that print advertising can finally be accurately measured, instead of survey-based methodologies that involve a lot of guesswork, according to Francis. He says eyeball-based data measuring metrics are easily skewed to fit agendas.
In contrast, AR would not need any metrics as the data used would all be directly gathered from consumers and be viewable by advertisers and publishers in real time.
“What we really want to know is what people are looking at and how long they look at it, that’s the holy grail. We’re looking for fully verified, undeniable evidence that you have to spend your advertising and marketing money in print,” he says.
“AR is the first new technology that enhances not cannibalises print’s market share. Digital isn’t the enemy anymore, it’s our friend – everyone can gain value., and print is central to that.”
Francis says clients will be able to change their campaigns immediately, based on the way consumers using wearable devices are looking at their ads – how long they stare at it, what parts of it are most eye-catching, what they do afterwards, and ultimately whether it leads to purchase.
“You can literally tell what people are eyeballing, down to the millisecond, and give that preference information to marketers,” he says.
“Media agencies are running scared of the ability to process huge amounts of data for brands and be able to algorithmically find the best way to spend a brand’s money. Brands will have all this data at their fingertips and they won’t even have to do anything to get it.
“It’s going to be unbelievably addictive analysing the level of engagement with your brand.”
AR campaigns are even winning advertising awards and having measurable results. Defence Force Recruiting’s Mobile Medic campaign in 2012, developed by GPY&R Melbourne, won the 2013 IAB award for the ‘mobile platform and app’ category.
The campaign featured an app prospective recruits could download and hold in front of printed outdoor advertising or a website with images of military personnel and reveal a real life medical toolkit of x-rays, heartbeat monitors and other information for the student to make a diagnosis.
Mobile Medic was designed to promote the Defence University Sponsorship (university scholarships for medical students in exchange for joining the ADF), which was struggling due to lack of awareness and a negative perception among students.
An ADF spokesperson says in the first two months, the app was downloaded more than 8000 times, enquiries increased by 30 per cent during and after university campus roadshows, 76 per cent of eligible students said it made them want to find out more about the sponsorship, and 64 per cent said it made them more likely to consider a career in the ADF. 71 per cent of students who participated in the roadshows submitted a request for more information on the day. “The use of augmented reality was perfect in targeting medical students as the technology was highly relevant to the product and application.”
Such was the campaign’s success that Navy Marketing later used AR to produce a Navy Trades mobile app that showcases its hardware, and an ADF spokesperson says AR will probably be used in future campaigns if deemed relevant.
However, the effectiveness of AR as an advertising vehicle and print supercharger hinges on consumers’ readiness to hold up their phones to ads or walk around wearing AR-capable glasses prepared to be marketed to at any moment.
TMS group business director David Lodge says it’s just a matter of good design. “To execute it well you need a strong creative link to engage with audiences, you have to inspire consumers and reward them to get involved. You have to surprise them with what you deliver and pick the right value-adds to provoke purchases,” he says.
Francis and Lorenzini are characteristically optimistic, saying the public will inevitably embrace it like they have many other new technologies.
“Because it’s awesome they will, they absolutely will,” Francis says. “The thing about technology is that every day of the week there’s something new that people will freak out about and they they’ll get used to it and realise it is useful to their lives.”
He says people will want to use wearable devices constantly because it will enhance their experience, and that unlike the ubiquitous billboards, if they don’t want to see something they can just turn it off.
Lorenzini says: “As long as you’re up front with the consumer about what you’re doing and you make it worthwhile for them, people are willing to do all sorts of wonderful things to help you give them a better experience.”
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