Immersive marketing continues to be an opportune, yet still challenged, segment. Sitting at the intersection of brand marketing and spatial computing, it includes things like sponsored AR lenses that let consumers interact and engage with brands, or virtually try on products.

Driving immersive marketing are a few key elements. Lens creation software arms brands and developers with low-code tools to author AR experiences. Meanwhile, networks like Snapchat and TikTok likewise offer the ability to amplify lenses throughout their social graphs.

There’s also a real business case, which can be seen in the performance metrics around AR campaigns. And though the future of AR is headworn, we’re mostly talking about AR marketing on smartphones. That’s where the scale lies… and brand marketers are all about scale.

This is the topic of a recent report from our research arm, ARtillery Intelligence, including ecosystem analysis and case studies from real AR marketing campaigns. The report joins our excerpt series, continuing in this edition with a look at the U.S. Tennis Association’s AR campaign.

AR Marketing Best Practices & Case Studies, Volume 5

Level Playing Field

The US Open’s governing body, the USTA, wanted to celebrate the 50 years it has spent awarding equal prize money to men and women tournament champions. This practice was first sparked by the efforts of Billie Jean King, who fought for equality in tennis fifty years ago.

To embody that history in its promotional efforts for the U.S. Open, the USTA looked to AR. The goal was to pay tribute to King in ways that were participatory, engaging, and viral. So it enlisted creative agency TriggerXR – a firm known for its AR campaigns in spectator sports.

Both companies got to work, collaborating on a set of lenses in a broader campaign that captured the ethos of the U.S. Open and its 50 Years of Equality theme. This included tennis, New York, and Billie Jean King-themed animations with which users could pose in a classic selfie lens.

The campaign also cast a wide net with availability across AR platforms. Specifically, the lens was released across Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram. Users were encouraged to capture and share their selfie videos and images to spread the campaign’s message of equality.

McDonald’s Triples Down on AR Marketing, Part 3

Television-Sized Audiences

And the results? The USTA’s AR lenses in total achieved 8 million impressions and 350,000 lens activations. It was also ranked in the top 1 percent of TikTok effects. These figures show that AR can achieve scale while reaching television-sized audiences with immersive engagement.

This campaign is also a lesson in cohesive conceptualization and design. It was propelled by its altruism and message of equality. This in turn boosted users’ motivation to share the selfies they captured with the lens and to be associated with the campaign’s message.

The USTA’s intent to spread this positive message resulted in positive brand associations as well as the campaign results noted above. Other success factors include amplifying the campaign’s impact by investing in lens development and distribution across social AR platforms.

That last part is a theme in our AR marketing case studies. Amplifying lenses through additional distribution – such as paid placement – can accelerate results. The USTA carried that principle and took it a step further with active presence across Snapchat, TikTok, and Meta.

We’ll pause there and circle back in the next installment of this series with another campaign case study. Meanwhile, check out the full report.