by 
AR continues to evolve and take shape. Like other tech sectors, it has spawned several sub-sectors that comprise an ecosystem. These include industrial AR, consumer VR, and AR shopping. Existing alongside all of them – and overlapping to some degree – is AR marketing.
Among other things, AR marketing includes sponsored AR lenses that let consumers visualize products in their space. This field – including AR creation tools and ad placement – could grow from $4.7 billion in 2023 to $11.8 billion in 2028 according to ARtillery Intelligence.
Factors propelling this growth include brand advertisers’ escalating affinity for, and recognition of, AR’s potential. More practically speaking, there’s a real business case. AR marketing campaigns continue to show strong performance metrics when compared with 2D benchmarks.
How is this coming together? And what are best practices? These questions were tackled in a recent report by our research arm, ARtillery Intelligence, including narrative analysis, revenue projections, and campaign case studies. It joins our report excerpt series, with the latest below.
Developing Muscles
During the Covid era, many types of events were forced to think differently and innovate with digital and remote formats. Many of those innovations not only worked at the time but developed long-term muscles, tech adoption, and practices that continued into the post-pandemic world.
Unilever is one company for which this process unfolded. And it decided to apply some of these digital/remote practices to its career fairs, with the help of AR. This involved an interactive virtual event whose goal was to match or exceed the recruitment levels of its physical career fairs.
With the help of AR agency Aircards and the 8th Wall platform, Unilever created a web AR experience for a virtual career fair that students could “tap to place” in their space. They could then physically walk around the fair and visit employer booths with accurate positional tracking.
Employers could meanwhile customize their booths and make changes on the fly. Virtual flat-screen monitors in each booth played employers’ personalized recruiting videos. And it was all available and activated through web links amplified across social media and other channels.
Tech-Forward Vibes
And the results? Unilever reached 2.4 million users and a 4.5-minute dwell time (mobile video dwell times average about 20 seconds by comparison). It also achieved an 8 percent conversion rate (job applications submitted) and 5x increase in applicants versus IRL career fairs.
So what are takeaways and transferrable lessons from what Unilever was able to accomplish? First, The choice of web AR let Unilever cast a wider net for device compatibility. It also enabled easier distribution and activation through familiar formats like web links and QR codes.
These components speak to the benefits of web AR in general in being easier to activate and distribute. That inherent benefit was given additional oxygen through active amplification, such as a social media push that was executed through paid help from Raptor Media.
The UX was also well-conceived as it simulated walking around a job fair, while leaning into the benefits of virtual/remote interactions (e.g., time-shifted and place-shifted convenience). It also carried tech-forward vibes for applicants interested in working for innovative companies.
We’ll pause there and pick it up in the next installment with a fresh AR marketing case study. Meanwhile, see a video of this campaign in action here and read the full report here.
Header image credit: Saulo Mohana on Unsplash
More from AR Insider…
