How Much Does AR Marketing Campaign Cost?

What is the first thing your potential customer sees when he wakes up in the morning?

No, please don’t tell me it’s his wife’s eyes. I bet that it’s the screen of his precious smartphone.

And even today most marketers still try to reach customers via printed catalogs, TV ads or boring emails. Well, that approach looks a bit short-sided. Instead of banking on marketing tools that might work or might not work, you can choose an innovative technological solution — augmented reality marketing campaigns.Or experiment with virtual reality.

Why? Because in the 21st century you should reach customers “in their natural habitat”and evoke genuine interest to your products instead of pushing.

You might think that hooking customers via social media can be a good idea yet the reach in social networks is limited. Ad blocks are merciless, and potential clients won’t notice ads soon at all. Facebook and Instagram prioritize human-made content to company-made content. In this situation AR/VR can be life-vests. I’ve read about all possible AR campaigns and created quite a few of them, and I know what I am talking about.

The thing is customers download mobile apps voluntarily, so why not reach your customers using AR/VR mobile apps?

We all have enormous amount of apps installed on our smartphones (I’ve counted 37on my phone). And late at night most of us browse through them in attempt to study a new language, to chat with friends or to create some new adorable photos with the help of Instagram filters.

Want to know what are the most popular apps today? You’ll be surprised. Here is the list of popular mobile apps in 2017 created by Fortune:

1.FaceApp, AR app using neural network.

2. Snapchat. App for communication that uses AR filters.

3. Bitmoji. An app to make cartoony avatars.

4. YouTube. You know.

5. Facebook Messenger. Just an app for communication.

Analyzing these 5 apps it’s easy to see that they are either entertaining or use AR or created for chatting. You see, AR becomes the thing that turns a boring application into a mind-blowing application to which people respond naturally. Here is the insight on the popularity of mobile apps in the world.

So using AR app for marketing a business increases the chance to reach broader target audience easier. More than that, using modern technologies, such as VR and AR mobile applications, a company shows that it is ready to stand out from the crowd, that it’s unique and self-actualized (which basically means that it wants more and sets higher goals).

It also means that it can compete with more progressive companies, even tech giants that are not afraid of experimenting and implementing the latest technologies. Apple, Google, Facebook, HTC, Ikea, Ford, Intel, L’Oreal…These are the companies that have already embraced the augmented and virtual future.

Forbes writers say augmented reality is one of the hottest trends in marketing and branding today that is why top brands embrace AR/VR eagerly. Companies using AR/VR emphasize innovative approach, liberalism, and techification. And they know that with the help of AR/VR apps they can reach customers via the things they love the most: devices. If your company were a person, AR marketing would be self-actualization every person needs, something unique and magnetic.

Augmented reality marketing campaign is company’s pass to the Premier League.

So What about AR Marketing?

I understand that the lingo of a marketing specialist is evolving with the speed of nuclear reactions in uranium. You must have missed 3 new terms because you didn’t read Forbes, Business Insider, and HubSpot blog for a week already when you were on vacation.

CTA, CTR, CRO, LSI, lookalike audience, AR marketing campaign. Too much.

Today augmented reality marketing is the word of the day in the glossary of a marketer, and it’s better if the person who knows what it is will explain it to you.

Why Trying Augmented Reality Marketing Campaign?

Any marketing campaign has one purpose: reaching target audience with some exact message about the product in order to promote it or sell. Augmented reality market growth gives you endless possibilities: you can AR and VR the way you want and reach every potential customer via his/her smartphone. Easy.

But you must be interested in the price. It will depend mostly on the type of AR campaign.

Let’s see what the most popular AR marketing campaigns are. It can be an augmented reality application to add one more visual layer to your company’s visual identity or to add a game element and remind adults that they are kids deep inside. It is possible to launch an augmented reality campaign with an immersive AR screen: it will be installed in a public place and will attract all the attention of customers. It can be an AR for printed media that will make your catalog look mind -boggling and engaging.

Here are 4 Most Common Augmented Reality Campaigns:

1. Augmented RealityMarketing Campaign for Packaging

You can create an augmented reality application to spice up your boring marketing and to engage with your potential customers on a more personal emotional level. You must have heard about personalization, it is the trendiest trend today.

With AR app for marketing, your customers will see digital information overlaid over your company’s products or merchandise.That’s how it’s possible to animate images or videos, make your customers feel, think, and react.

For instance, Starbucks used augmented reality application to show clients how their favorite coffee beans are transformed into a cappuccino:

Danone used augmented reality marketing application to let children see the cosmos. That is how the company made little customers interact with the company’s merchandise for longer:

Adults respond to AR with huge enthusiasm. Even the companies that sell old wine add AR marketing to their strategy. With one of this augmented reality marketing campaigns you can make people believe in magic and produce this elusive WOW effect at last. That is what 19 Crimes did — it targeted adults with augmented reality and generated real buzz on the Internet.

It can take 4–6 months depending on the architecture of the application and the complexity of 3D graphics. The price will depend on the amount of man hours of developers and 3D designers.

2. AR Marketing Campaign with Immersive Screens

Installing an augmented reality screen in a public place is definitely a one shot-one hit marketing strategy. Pepsi did it, Axe did it, Coca Cola did it, and the National Geographic did it as well.

Augmented reality screen is one of the most common solutions for those who want to raise brand awareness. It’s effective, it’s impressive, it’s awesome. Awesome means that it stimulates the feeling of awe, the feeling of belonging to someone bigger and more impressive.

More than that, using augmented reality screen for a marketing campaign is the chance to implement experiential marketing in life: when customers see themselves surrounded by magic creatures, like angels or polar bears, they experience real emotions. And get hooked.

Paradox? No, it’s a logical conclusion.

How much would an augmented reality marketing campaign with an immersive screen cost? It will largely depend on the 3D animation you will want to use for your ad. 3D modelers will have to create the content for this augmented reality application: the more complex and dynamic the 3D animation is, the longer it will take to build the application.

The application like the one Pepsi will take 2 months. The price will depend on the number of man hours of developers and 3D designers spent.

3. Augmented Reality Campaign for Printed Media

Imagine you have a catalogue. Of course, you have a catalogue, if you are a big retailer. Or you have a magazine or a brand book you send to your customers. How about breaking this 2D window and adding some interactive digital content to your printed media? Bringing textual or visual content to another dimension, making it three-dimensional, making it alive?

With AR app you can bring any page of your printed media to life. That is why Time, Elle, Top Gear have already added augmented reality to their issues. Instead of looking at cars at Top Gear, readers now can see them riding.

How much would this augmented reality marketing campaign cost ?Of course, it will depend on what you want to animate — a 3D model? Or you want to launch a video like in Top Gear’s AR Promo?

It can take 2 weeks to create the application for printed media.The number of man hours of developers and 3D designers will be converted into the price.

4. Augmented Reality Campaign as a Game

People never stop playing. It’s just the price of the toys that changes. Car companies know it, that is why they use the trend for gamification to reach and hook their target audience. Volvo decided to introduce one of its new models using AR game. Smart solution, isn’t it?

That’s the campaign that helped Volvo to reach a younger target audience, increase customer engagement, and change the perception of the brand.

The effect from promo campaign with AR game was staggering: the company assessed as 240% lift in brand favorability. And this is just a simple AR game.

How much does it cost to create a game like this?

It will take up to 2 months to create such an application depending on the quality of 3D graphics and the complexity of the architecture of the application. Man hours of developers and 3D designers will be converted into a price.

So Why Bother Launching a Marketing Campaign?

You see, augmented reality marketing campaign is the answer to these unbearable questions marketers are racking their brains with:

“How can I impress my customers and make them remember my brand?”

“How can I increase brand loyalty to my company?”

“How can create a real WOW effect with my promo campaign?”

“What shall I do to make my company stand out of the crowd?”

“How can I increase brand awareness for my brand?”

They drink 5 coffees a day to stimulate creativity and still don’t know how to answer all these questions. And each crazy marketing idea can become an effective AR/VR app. Taking into account that every person on the planet downloaded 30 apps last year, your chances to reach customers via AR/VR mobile apps are very and very high.

So have you considered augmented reality marketing campaign as a solution?