Augmented reality use cases for brands and their implementations

Branding is about creating memorable, interactive experiences that engage with customers while elevating the brand presence. Previously the effort to produce such effect is costly in terms of both monetary and human capital.

Web AR – Augmented Reality in your browser

In augmented reality (AR) especially for consumers, consumers are inherently skeptical and resistant to download any apps that has to do with brand engagement. Therefore, experiencing AR must be as easy as scanning a QR code and loading the AR instantly in their browser. Unlike playing a mobile game, AR experiences like this are normally designed to be simple and would be able to run smoothly in a mobile web browser on most recent phones as of writing this article.

Reasons to build AR on a dedicated website

• The complexity level of the experience required is much higher.
• The AR experience is for a campaign and the user is required to be at the campaign website.
• The brand does not want to associate with any existing social media platform like Facebook or Instagram for privacy reasons.

It is to be noted that hosting Web AR may incur cost for renting the servers.

Social Media AR – Augmented Reality in your social media apps

The alternative platform of running AR experiences without downloading the app is to use existing apps to run the experience. Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok all have the capabilities to allow the user to experience AR inside their app without downloading a new app or experiencing it inside a browser. This greatly reduces the friction of user’s willingness to try the AR experience of your company.

There are several reasons to build an AR experience on a social media platform.

• Lower friction for users to try the AR experience
• Smoother performance and experience
• Better trust using existing platforms that loading from an unknown site
• Able to immediately connect to business’s social media pages (Facebook page etc) without further navigation.
• Brands have immediate access to statistics of their AR experience to gauge the AR’s traction.
• Hosting is free.
• Users could easily share their AR experience on their social media.

Now that both AR platforms has been clearly defined, here are some use cases that we have built for client brands.

Augmented Reality Branding Use Cases

AR for bakery: Giant Egg Tart

The local bakery popularly known for its handmade egg tarts have installed an AR experience in front of the shop. Upon loading their AR experience in Facebook, a giant egg tart 2 meters tall will emerge in front of the shop. This egg tart was photogrammetry scanned into the scene, so the egg tart that appeared is the exact product that the bakery produced. The egg tart has full texture and even reflection on the egg texture itself where the customers can take a very close look and inspect the shape and finishing of the egg tart product.

The egg tart has attracted all their fans and locals to try the egg tart while taking photos of themselves with the giant egg tart that would have been costly or even unpractical to have a physical copy be installed in front of the shop.

Augmented Reality on Credit Card

A credit card issued by a Singapore bank had the intention to adopt AR in their credit card presentation to their new credit card holders. Their local Malaysian bank HQ commissioned us to build an AR experience for them. We are unable to show you the final product due to business confidentiality reasons, but we are able to showcase the demo of the AR experience instead.

Upon starting the AR experience, a 3D model of a lady customer service appears on the credit card and started to wave at the user to get their attention. The customer will then intuitively tap on the ad displayed next to the customer service to get them to start the education process of understanding the perks of having their credit card by having the 3D customer service explain the benefits to them.

This credit card educational experience is done inside a web browser using Web AR over the period of 3 months in Singapore.

7-Eleven Mural for Branding

7-Eleven wanted to raise awareness of younger customers to come grab their coffee in their 7-Cafe or 7-Eleven kiosk in the morning. To do that, they wanted to commission a mural company to paint the mural on the blank wall next to their kiosk. We collaborated with a local mural company named Caveman Murals for this. Caveman murals group of artist have been working with us on various AR mural projects in the past, providing us with 2D animations and 3D models and animations as well.

Here is the artwork that was created by the Caveman mural design team.

You may scan the QR code beneath to experience the AR using Facebook below.

The entire wall of the kiosk has become a see through, and the customers can now look inside the 7-Eleven to see all the little whimsical activities happening in the kiosk, prompting them to go in to purchase a coffee.

Now that we have demonstrated Web AR and Social Media AR use cases, here are some app development AR implementation that are much more complex that has been adopted by businesses.

AR app designed for brands

Shell station in Seremban transformation using App AR

One of the petrol station Shell petroleum of Malaysia has a long empty wall next to the kiosk. Our counterpart mural company, cavemanmurals.com has finished a mural of a large Gorilla’s head. We then stepped in to insert and turned the entire kiosk into an ancient temple where a gorilla is enclosed inside the temple’s building structure with its head sticking out.

Animals are also placed around the vicinity, and players are to explore the temple ruins to collect ancient coins scattered around the area while they navigate through the setting area.

You may watch the demo here.

Singapore bakery using VPS (Virtual Positioning System)

A bakery in Singapore collaborated with Google to create the first augmented reality street that pass-byers can admire through the lens of the phone.

Although the bakery has Google to build for them, we are able to build this for you using the exact same technology. Just speak to us via Whatsapp at +60166850069.