Luxury brands from jewelers to automakers have been integrating augmented reality into their marketing strategies, leading experts to believe that it will soon become a staple in luxury advertising.
Luxury brands such as Boucheron, Tissot, Garrard and BMW have recently used augmented reality to allow consumers to virtually try on products via smartphone and webcam technology. The rising trend falls in step with a Juniper study that found the number of augmented reality-capable smartphones had increased from 8 million in 2009 to more than 100 million in 2010.
“These companies are at the vanguard of the trend of increased interaction with their clients online, which is the way that the Web on the whole is heading,” said Maria Doulton, founder of online magazine Jewellery Editor, London.
Reality check
Augmented reality has been used in a variety of different ways, from gaming to showing consumers the inside look of a car.
For example, Britain’s Garrard, the world’s oldest jewelry manufacturer, teamed up with Vogue UK’s Street Light project and Holition, creating augmented-reality windows that allowed viewers to wear a $154,481 tiara on their head. This was extremely popular during the recent royal wedding craze.
Swiss watchmaker Tissot allowed window shoppers to try on its luxury watches from the sidewalk in front of Selfridges and Harrods, using Holition technology.
The Tissot campaign was more successful than any other British campaign that the brand had done. Sales in the Tissot Selfridges boutique rose 83 percent, per Holition, the company that developed the augmented reality technology.
German automaker BMW had consumers print out a sheet of paper, which they could than hold in front of a webcam and move around to see different views from inside the brand’s cars.
German apparel retailer Hugo Boss set up an augmented reality game in front of one of the London locations with discounts as the prizes.
Continues at: Augmented reality generates powerful advantage for luxury brands: expert – Luxury Daily – Multichannel.
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