Is Augmented Reality Having a Come Back?
Back in the mid-to-late 2010s, as I was finding my footing as a journalist in the advertising industry, I remember frequent invites from brands and agencies to test their latest virtual and/or augmented reality experiences. A highlight was soaring around Wimbledon from the point of view of the tennis club’s famed hawk, Rufus.
AR and VR were the future, enjoying the hype and proliferation of experimental experiences that we’re currently seeing with artificial intelligence. There was a spike of AR activity but then it felt like it fell out of fashion. But now that the novelty has worn off, and our devices have advanced, it seems that we’re seeing a normalisation of augmented reality, with a clutch of interesting executions from the likes of Diageo, Magnum and PUMA.
So, what’s behind this and are we really seeing a comeback? LBB’s Addison Capper spoke with technology leaders from brands and agencies to find out.
Benni Lickfett
Global director of breakthrough innovation – digital at Diageo
The boundaries between online and offline continue to blur and although digital experiences will never replace in-person socialising, it has a great opportunity to enhance the experience and this is something we’re increasingly looking into at Diageo.
Our consumer trends report, ‘Distilled’, showcases this ‘expanding reality’ trend, which augmented reality fits into. As digital infrastructure continues to evolve, opportunities to enhance and augment everyday life will continue to emerge, allowing consumers to embrace new realities and create new spaces for people to socialise and interact.
Our latest step into this has been launching our first experience with Apple Vision Pro to bring tequila culture to fans around the world. We’ve been incredibly excited to be among the first companies to adapt this new technology and is a perfect example of how we’re bringing next generation brand experiences to consumers.
Joe Williams
Director of creative technology at DEPT®
Don’t call it a comeback, more a reckoning.
Metaverse-style hype tornadoes around recent technology innovations have done nothing to diminish mainstream audiences' continued adoption of augmented reality (AR). The types of experiences have increased and are available via a huge pre-existing user base of smartphone owners.
The rapid innovation cycles of camera systems on those smartphones have been a significant enabler in driving the usage of AR, with most modern handsets likely to include multiple cameras working in sync with a lidar scanner. This evolution in technology on the rear of our phones has enabled the camera to move beyond capturing what it’s pointed at, to understanding what is in front of it in real time. Interactive digital layers can then be added to this understanding.
A host of global media powerhouses, ranging from the BBC, LADbible, The New York Times, Red Bull, and Vice, have embraced the camera as a platform for distributing a broad variety of compelling interactive AR genres, ranging from entertainment, education, utility, and commerce. Existing apps achieve distribution; TikTok, Snapchat, Google, and YouTube, amongst many others, all have advanced AR capability built into the core platform.
Brands are also increasingly keen on utilising AR for marketing purposes, and for good reason too. AR offers effective experiential interactions, with media planners increasingly exploiting the format for its full-funnel capability.
There has also been a recent wave of hugely significant indicators from big tech around their intention to continue pursuing wearable development projects. Apple, Meta and Snapchat have all launched new headsets within the past six months, with Google, Nintendo, and Samsung rumoured to be circling each other on a future collaboration on a headset.
Although too early to tell if the adoption of wearables will ever be a reality, what is clear is that mobile AR will be the gateway mode for onboarding the masses into spatial computing experiences - where they or their immediate environment become the canvas for the digital experience.
Ivan Dashkov
Head of emerging marketing technology at PUMA
Augmented reality saw a spike in interest during the mid-to-late 2010s, with the success of lightweight Snapchat face filters, which made AR fun and accessible. At PUMA, we've experimented in this space by creating AR filters on platforms like Snapchat and Instagram, and we've seen some good results. In the AR space, there's also a growing focus on digital clothing, though AR through phones hasn't yet reached the scale or innovation we’re looking for as a brand. While it’s a technology we continue to monitor, consumer-facing applications haven't achieved the kind of breakthrough or engaging use cases that would make a significant impact — at least for now.
On the other hand, virtual reality (VR) has seen more growth recently, particularly with Meta's successful sale of its headsets. As a sports brand, PUMA finds VR workout apps particularly intriguing. These applications offer a legitimate alternative for people who may not want to attend in-person classes or go to a gym. Our involvement includes working with Meta to create Avatar Store items, launching the World’s Smallest Gym in our Berlin store last year - which featured a workout space equipped with VR headsets - and now, we are working with Meta to create immersive web VR shopping experiences.
A key development for AR is the advancement of pass-through technology in new VR headsets, which blurs the line between AR and VR. This allows for more use cases than what we've seen for AR on phones, opening doors for more immersive and practical XR experiences.
Looking ahead, the real breakthrough for XR will come when we have high-quality, affordable glasses that seamlessly integrate into everyday life. These glasses will be more than a gadget — they’ll enhance how we navigate the world, interact with objects around us, and access information effortlessly. The Meta Ray-Bans, with their stylish form factor and AI functionality, are a promising steppingstone in that direction. But the true game changer will be glasses that combine practicality, style, and an expansive field of view - making AR a natural extension of daily life. This shift could ultimately replace the need for smartphones and revolutionise the way we experience technology.
Kim Jimenez
Director of interactive strategy at TBWA\Media Arts Lab
What we're seeing is a blending of realities, both physical and virtual. 2023 was the year of CGI stunts from brands trying to get people to do a double take. My favourite, and arguably what started the trend, is when Jacquemus shared his Bambino bags as hyper-real buses driving down the streets of Paris. Bringing augmented creativity into a lifelike space makes viewers question reality, especially at a time with AI generated content on the rise. I liked the recent twist from House of the Dragon, where they created both real and CGI banners asking people to choose a side. The mixture of mediums challenged the perception of what was actually real, driving people to go out and find out for themselves. While we don't have mass adoption of the devices to view these experiences in all their glory yet, we're going to continue to see people experiment with the concept of reality and how that comes to life creatively. I just don't think we can simply label that as AR or VR—it's something entirely different that blends everything we know together.
Matt Watson
CMO at Aircards
With AI taking the 2024 crown for ‘over-hyped tech of the year’, immersive tech (AR, VR, 3D) has been given more of a chance to continue maturing without so much limelight. The medium is undergoing explosive growth, with the IAB predicting the global AR advertising market will hit approximately £7.5 billion by 2026. This explains why brands like Diageo, Magnum and Nike seek to invest in highly engaging immersive experiences.
From a creative point of view, the case for immersive is clear - consumers get fully engaged in a well executed immersive experience. But there’s still some trepidation from brands when it comes to tracking effectiveness. Just like the doubt that surrounded the early days of social media, some marketers still feel uncertain around the long term value of immersive tech and how best to use it. The issue partly stems from the difficulties of measuring efficacy. Clicks, impressions and follower counts… they aren’t so relevant within immersive, 3D or virtual environments. Typical web tools like Google Analytics aren’t cut out for these brave new channels.
Fortunately, though, there are new ways to quantify the impact of immersive experiences. We can measure attention by recording how long someone looks at something. And we can analyse preferences by how their head and eyes move. What’s more, 3D conversion funnels - which offer massive potential for marketers to delight audiences in new ways - are uniquely possible within immersive spaces.
Simply put, 2D analytics aren’t fit for a 3D world. New channels need new measurement strategies. Thankfully, a new breed of platforms like Metalitix are emerging to address the need. And this is the final staging post in immersive’s journey to adulthood. So don’t call it a comeback. It’s been here all along and now that measurement is in place, it’s all grown up.
Iván Leider
CTO at L+R
Extended reality is the elephant in the tech room. In the current landscape, the balance between price, quality, wearability, and user experience is a delicate one—and not necessarily an ideal one. For XR to truly take off, it needs to be accessible and practical for the average consumer, and frankly, the current compromises are holding it back. This may be an unpopular opinion from someone in my position, but these limitations are stalling the widespread adoption that could catapult XR into the mainstream.
Yet, there's an undeniable excitement from early adopters, especially within the gaming community, who see XR as the ‘next big thing’. In the long run, XR's reach might even eclipse the popularity of smartwatches and in-ear wireless earbuds, mirroring the story of cell phones in the 1980s. The potential for this technology is enormous, but for it to truly take off, XR devices need to reach the weight, comfort, and practicality of eyeglasses. And surprisingly, we may be closer than we think — products like the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are already ticking many of the right boxes. But are they truly XR devices, or something else entirely? These glasses may, in fact, evolve into a more practical and compelling solution than current headsets, which still struggle with bulkiness and social acceptance.
Ultimately, the key question is how these devices will impact productivity and communication. Imagine two scenarios: would you rather work on a virtual desktop inside a VR headset, or control your computer with eye-tracking and gestures through lightweight glasses? And in terms of conferencing — do you want the full immersion of a virtual meeting room, or would you rather be able to join calls while remaining engaged in your physical environment?
As hardware and software continue to develop, the smart glasses path seems to offer the most seamless route to augmented reality for the everyday user.
