The recent news that Facebook is now a more common route to news than Google Search has sparked new discussion about the importance of social media. At Crossplatform, we’ve been considering where this might lead multiplatform media, and of course, augmented reality.
It’s possible that a few years from here, we’ll visit a trade show to find that people are holding mobile devices in our direction to view our key business offerings. This is Facebook and AR in perfect synergy, or Linked In if we’re to sound business-like about it. This type of application also feeds into our belief that AR has a long way to go, and the fact that AR is, well, useful, and certainly not a gimmick.
Ogilvy London, with whom we’ve become a Labs Partner , are certainly of this opinion. They view Augmented Reality as a ‘branded utility’, certainly able to help consumers as well as sell products, and in this way, a core part of everyday communications. In order for this to work, it is of course important that AR is dead easy to use. We’ve already found ways of working with markerless technology, but now we’ll be looking to make every aspect of the experience as seamless as possible. Imagine the opportunities that this presents companies to interact with their customers – to inform, entertain and elicit survey information.
We’re really at the start of something extraordinary, and this link with social media sites is very exciting. After the fragmentation of society that’s occurred in recent years, at last technology will give us a way to regain a dialogue with the people who supply our everyday goods and services. We’ll be taking our Facebook selves into virtual stores and interacting with our favourite brands – and the brands will know exactly what we want. We think that’s how it should be – and we’re glad that AR is going to take us there.
