Last month, Google’s augmented reality goggles made it to the runway of Fashion Week. And as we all know, what appears in September at New York Fashion Week is on Olivia Palermo in October, in stores by the holiday season and pretty much on everyone by mid-winter.
This may or may not happen with Google Glass, but augmented reality, or at least the promise of it, is absolutely the hot new fashion in the technology world. Fashion writers are gushing about the future of wearable technology, and tech junkies are dreaming about layers of data in instant visual form.
But brand marketers, especially, should be really excited. They’re the ones who strive to influence decisions in the physical world, using digital images and messages. They’re the one pushing users to connect with their brand before, during and after making a purchase. Augmented reality, by definition, is that connection.
In a time where engagement is the number-one metric and brands are hungering to create emotional bonds with their customers, AR is a breakthrough technology. After all, what could be more engaging than your brand message literally overlaid on a consumer’s view of the world? And marketers don’t have to wait for everyone to start wearing AR goggles to start utilizing it. We have some AR technology on our person right now: It’s called a smartphone. The camera lens of our smartphones has the same capabilities: to bring to life this information that is unseen with the naked eye. (Read more…)
This post was originally published by Digiday on October 12, 2012.
