Augmented reality and advertising have already proven that they work together splendidly. And the latest proof in this respect comes from furniture producer Kmart. The company partnered with immersive advertising agency OmniVirt to create a programmatic AR ad campaign.
Web AR Helps Kmart Sell More Furniture
The ad agency has developed a web-based AR ad campaign targeted at Australian consumers. The ads will appear in highly popular websites such as Buzzfeed, Yahoo, Daily Mail, and Reddit. Also, Australians who browse the home and decor site Apartment Therapy will see these ads as well.
How do these ads work? As soon as a consumer sees the ad, they can interact with the 3D model of the advertised furniture item. The ad also offers the possibility to use the phone or laptop camera to place the object in their room. Every AR piece of furniture is real-to-scale. Thus, the user will have a realistic representation of how it will look in the real-life environment.
Why an AR Ad Campaign?
Kmart and its media agency Universal McCann decided to work with OmniVirt based on the positive information on user interaction with AR ads. In particular, according to OmniVirt’s own statistics, users on average spend 22 seconds interacting with an AR ad. In addition to that, 7.52% of users engage with the AR ad in an active manner after clicking on it.
Also, there are several other success stories in furniture retail with respect to augmented reality marketing. Large brands like IKEA and Wayfair have highly popular AR apps. Some even include these two branded apps into the top 8 AR apps for furniture in 2019.
In this context, creating an AR ad campaign makes a lot of sense. Before consumers decide to install an app, they need to be familiar with the brand and interact with it. Thus, AR ads are the first step in creating this interaction. Anyone can try a furniture item and see how they look in their home.
The Future of Shopping Looks Firmly Connected with AR
The key benefit for AR ads and apps is convenience. People do not have to leave their house and go to a store to see a product in real-life size. With the AR ad campaign created by OmniVirt for Kmart, users don’t even have to leave the website they are browsing.
Also, by the programmatic placement of these ads, users will see them in a relevant context. Apartment Therapy is an excellent example – a website dedicated to interior decorations and furnishing.
If you are curious to see how this new AR ad campaign works, you can try this live demo, even if you do not live in Australia. Or, you can watch below the presentation video created by OmniVirt.
