Close to a decade ago Social Media had burst on the scene, brands were still discovering the opportunities with various social media platforms such as Facebook & Twitter among others. Move over to 2019, where organic reach has really taken a hit and there is a high degree of competition to get into the user’s feed for just about everyone. Amidst all this competition, newer trends are emerging and Augmented Reality is potentially predicted as one of the key game-changers.
2019 will be somewhat similar to 2009 that this year many marketers/brands agencies will spend time in discovering the opportunities with AR. It’s certainly not the first time we’re hearing about AR, but the perception has always been Augmented Reality is supposed to be complex, cumbersome and really expensive. What’s new this time is the massive push being made by giants such as Facebook in the form of Spark AR Studio and Lens Studio by Snap Inc.
If this is for the first time you’re hearing about Spark AR and Lens Studio, these are simple platforms that make it easy to create interactive augmented reality experiences with or without code for Facebook/Instagram and Snapchat respectively. In other words, you can remix the real world with immersive experiences that are highly engaging and capture the attention of users creating stickiness.
You can use simple triggers for facial expressions such as smile, blinking eyes movement of head, hand and interaction gestures such as tapping of screen etc. Plane tracking can be used for the rear camera to place 3D objects in the real world environment.
For brand marketers, it’s an all-new interaction medium to create memorable experiences which provide real value in the form of a utility or let them discover more. For starters, you can follow our session on AR Filters 101 at Social Samosa.com.
At Iffort, we’ve been experimenting with several filters across the categories of fan-engagement, causes, gamification and plane-tracking for interaction with real world objects. Take a look at some examples below
Pride Month Filter
We built this simple filter to celebrate the #PrideMonth, it works on the front-camera and is based on simple face gestures such as blinking of eye and face detection.
Plane Tracking Filter Concept
We just tested this filter at our brand-lab to elaborate on what can be done for brands. In this case, you can just use the rear camera to point your camera at the brand logo and see the history of previous logos and where it all started.
To try out some of our filters, built on Spark AR you can visit here. If you are getting started in your Social AR journey, drop us a note and we will be happy to have a chat.
