Meta (formerly Facebook) is committing its efforts toward the metaverse. As official Facebook Partners, JAY was invited to take part in a unique, partners-only webinar series to learn more about the metaverse and how businesses can channel their marketing efforts to take advantage of the ever-evolving landscape. As a gift to our readers, we are sharing these webinars with you! Be sure to continue visiting our news section for insights and links to the final webinar next week.
The webinar is broken into a three-part series.
Part 1: Accelerating Businesses’ Leap into the Future
Who can forget the classic Snapchat filter where users could puke rainbows? Snapchat – and other platforms – soon realized that while many people (not just teenagers) got a kick out of filters like that, there was a growing opportunity to capitalize on.
Don’t believe me? If you invested $15,000 in Snapchat in 2012, you’d have a cool $24 million by 2017.
The second part of Meta’s webinar series focused on how silly face filters have evolved into a leading charge of the metaverse. The webinar was broken down into three parts: an introduction to augmented reality, how brands are building for the future, and what lies ahead.
Intro to AR
Some quick stats on augmented reality:
- 78% of consumers say it’s a fun way to interact with other people and brands
- 74% of consumers say it can help bridge the gap between online and offline experiences
- 75% of business leaders plan to implement AR by 2023
- AR advertising spending will increase 6x by 2024
Got your attention now?
In just a short period of time, augmented reality has turned from experimental to mainstream – and consumers can’t get enough.
The rise of short-form mobile videos and corresponding creators have helped spark this trend. AR can alter both people and environments to create unique experiences for consumers.
We’ll forgive you if you interchange augmented reality with virtual reality. Meta explained the difference simply: AR is information overlaid on top of the physical world while VR is a fully immersive experience provided by a device (headset, glasses, etc.) that “transport” you elsewhere.
AR Building for Brands
There are plenty of opportunities for brands to implement AR across Facebook and Instagram. For now, those include pages/profiles, posts, stories, direct ads, through the camera, QR codes and other links.
Now, before you start investing time and resources into all of those options, let’s look at what Meta recommends when it comes to building AR content.
Providing Value:
The first step is providing value for your customers, fans, and prospects. Depending on your product or services, that could range across many different ages, locations, and other demographics. Consumers see so many ads every day that they’ve grown accustomed to tuning things out. AR can’t be forced – and people will sniff out lazy attempts.
Instead, gain consumers’ trust by making participation as easy as possible. Offer them value rather than make it hard. Your content must be entertaining and useful at the same time. While AR can be used to sell products (which we’ll cover next), step one is to create an inviting environment that leads to participation.
Driving Your Objective With A Purpose:
As with every marketing and advertising objective, there should be a goal in place. That comes down to understanding where your consumers are in the purchase funnel and how to provide the most appropriate content.
Meta showed great examples of how AR can drive brand awareness for top-of-the-funnel consumers. Then comes the consideration phase where consumers can start to show their value propositions and exclusive content. Lastly, conversions; which don’t always have to be direct purchases. They can be form fills, phone calls, or even job applications.
While AR can certainly turn off some consumers, brands understand that those who participate are much more likely to end up converting. So, in a sense, it can be seen as a niche form of marketing to narrow down your audience.
Building/Content Creation:
Any form of content means nothing if consumers can’t find it. Brands must drive discovery and make it easy for their audience to interact with their AR.
This should come as no surprise, but AR content is mobile-focused. There’s more to it than just having the correct dimensions, though. Your load times should be fast and the AR interactions should be easy to use and understand.
Provide your consumers with simple instructions – even if that means incorporating step-by-step directions within your content. People will appreciate that and it will lead to more engagement.
Think about popular filters. Many of them insist on positioning your face in the correct location, then performing some type of movement or task to “unlock” the AR effect.
Meta doesn’t recommend creating custom, complex interactions just yet. That will invite usage difficulty and drop off.
The Road Ahead
Meta predicts there to be three main frontiers of AR use: world experiences, social experiences, and commerce.
- Enhancing objects or surrounding environments can help bring static images to a 3D life. Wearable technology will only help this section of AR.
- Social experiences aren’t just limited to social media. Instead, Meta focused on person-to-person interaction through the help of AR. Group effects that multiple people can experience at once will be a bigger trend moving forward.
- And yes, AR will impact the future of shopping. Creating immersive experiences will engage consumers. Buyer’s remorse will be at an all-time low due to customers demoing products before purchasing them.
Meta is committed to demystifying AR production and creation. They fully expect to make augmented reality marketing easier than ever this year.
So, for now, the task is easy: be inspired and dream about what’s possible. What can AR bring to your business and brand? And how can you relay that to provide a meaningful experience for your customers?
The final part of Meta’s webinar series will dive into content creation and how businesses can easily create AR moving forward. Be sure to follow us on social or visit our website news section to check out “Part 3 – Augmented Reality Creators: Builders of the Future!”
