Jon Reil | Thoughts on branding, creativity, social media and web design.

Augmented Reality Gaming with Brands, Location and More

Check out the Conspiracy For Good AR game above.

From Augmented Planet:

…players pit their wits against a corrupt company, using their Nokia device players can take on assignments in their city to help bring the company down. Rather than being a simple game where you wonder aimlessly to the end of the road and back, participants need to follow clues on the games website. These clues will require the player to travel to locations and point at objects and images in the real-world using the devices camera to discover the next clue.

The video makes me think about sharing moments with others by surprise. Say someone buys a gift card for a friend at an unnamed store. Upon purchase, the person who you bought the gift card for receives a text message saying that they’ve received a gift card – one that they’d be able to use if they could find the location of the store where the gift card was purchased. Hopefully the gift card would be for a store (or restaurant, etc.) that that particular person frequents. Once your friend entered the store their mobile would send the “brand jingle” then receive the gift card. Call it a 21st century scavenger hunt. You’d have to be nice and probably have the gift card be time sensitive (e.g., okay you haven’t found it so here’s the store), but the thought of adding game-play to a buying experience seems like it could be a lot of fun.

This could branch out to many other interesting (and fun) things. How about a location-based AR trivia game for the Freedom Trail in Boston? Or another form of coupon hide and seek?

AR continues to fascinate me and I’m truly looking forward to what the future of this technology brings.

via Augmented Planet

Gooooooooaal! AR Gaming Within A Banner Ad

This video showcases an Augmented Reality soccer game banner produced by BBDO and Zoic Studios. Per YouTube, they concepted and created the game for AT&T using motion capture technology (ZugMO) that allows people with a webcam to “head in” corner kicks. What a great way to engage people and get them to spend very long periods of time with your brand. Truly a win for the brand: more time spent, brand awareness, word of mouth marketing, and consumer: engagement, fun, and sharing your experience with friends.

Expect to see a lot more banners (and more) that use these types of interactions in the future.

View the demo.

Augmented Reality, Touchscreen Technology & Social Media Integration

Augmented Reality, Touchscreen Technology & Social Media Integration

There has been a lot of hype gathering around augmented reality over the past year. We all hear “It’s awesome!” “It’s the next big thing!” and “It’s still in its infancy.” Yes, all of these are true. But from a practical perspective, how easy is it to use? And what are some well executed real world examples that we can experience without staring our phones, or putting on some rather strange looking glasses? The video above answers these questions for me. It’s a fun way of allowing people to try on clothes – now get this: without the use of markers and share the results through Facebook.

Taking this idea a step further, imagine other ways you could experience something like this outside of the store – perhaps it’s a technology that’s embedded into the glass wall outside of a shop. In the future this technology also uses facial recognition software to pull up your likes/dislikes, and then recommends an outfit (or phone, or car, or movie) based on you and your history. Scary? Yes. Amazing? Yes.

Augmented reality solutions like this will change the face of digital in the future. They almost scream to be experienced, and immediately bring you into contact with a brand. This type of solution is truly a win-win for the consumer and the brand.

via: Augmented Planet

Soccer City in Augmented Reality – Why?

Soccer City World Cup AR Stadium Tour

This augmented reality experience for Soccer City is an interesting demo for the stadium, but I find myself really trying to find a reason why this works better with all the steps necessary to run the AR experience than just having a nice interactive piece on the site. Is it the cool factor? Is it how you feel when you interact with it? Is it a combination of both? Maybe even a better way to add revenue to their print pieces?

A big question I have for AR experiences like this: What happens when larger screens go touch? I’d much rather swipe the screen to see more of the stadium, pinch to zoom, etc. than print out an AR code, walk over to the printer, click yes to “allow” my web-cam to view my AR code, put it in just the right place so the web-cam can pick it up, and then watch some choppy animation bring in the stadium. Call me crazy.

But also, don’t get me completely wrong. Many of us know there are some good uses of AR. Maybe we just haven’t found the right technology for experiences like Soccer City to be painless. Perhaps time, technology, and creativity will tell.

via Augmented Planet