Ninety-seven years ago, the first radio advertisement hit the airwaves.
Seventy-eight years ago, Bulova and NBC created the first TV commercial.
It cost $9 and changed the world forever.
Twenty-five years ago, AT&T created the first banner ad the internet had ever seen.
It is clearly terrible, but it also changed everything.
It can be difficult to pin down the first time virtual or augmented reality was used for advertising, but we do know immersive technology like VR and AR represent the new frontier of marketing media.
We went from print to not being able to see anything (radio), to not being able to interact with anything (TV), to not being able to experience anything in space (digital). And now, here we are in the early days of immersive advertising.
Soon, Facebook will begin supporting augmented reality ads. And Shopify has already integrated AR into their platform.
Over the last few years, brands and software developers have partnered to create some pretty great content so far, but there are still many new trails to blaze. Here are some of our favorite applications to whet your appetite.
Yeah. You can order a pizza on Snapchat. Snapchat has over 300 million monthly active users and it’s the platform of choice for people under 24 (over 78% over people born after 1990 are active users).
This one has been around for a little while now, but it’s still one of the best examples of effective VR advertising. Who wouldn’t want to cook Swedish meatballs in their new, infinitely-customizable virtual kitchen?
As retail trends more and more toward e-commerce and experiential in-store experiences, technology will be one of the main theaters of war for competing brands. Lowe’s absolutely nailed this one. Through this simulation, they are providing a memorable experience, customer education, and they position themselves as thought leaders and innovators in their field.
Anyone who enjoyed Honey I Shrunk the Kids will get a kick out of this one. Also, anyone who likes delicious cheese.
Coke partnered with Blippar and Spotify to bring custom playlists to Canadian beverage enjoyers. Had it been targeted at American audiences, they may have chosen Snapchat, but who knows what our neighbors to the north are into?
This is an excellent way to demonstrate products, and 360º applications like this are forwards-compatible with virtual reality via Google Cardboard or high-end VR headsets.
While you can’t eat the AR burger, it is a pretty awesome way to show off premium menu items.
Yes. People will try to eat the virtual burgers. But it’s cool. They can’t hurt themselves.
We haven’t gotten to try this one yet, but it appears to feature the option of beating the hell out of a water heater with a lightsaber so obviously, it is amazing. It’s also got some really impressive customer education features, and while something silly like lightsabers might not fit your project it always helps to get people smiling.
This one, from 2017, gives potential customers the experience of climbs a mountain with famous athletes. If you need more of an explanation than that, you might be in the wrong field.
So, you get to be Spiderman in this one. There’s probably something cooler than that somewhere in the universe, but nothing immediately comes to mind.
We hope you enjoyed our list. There were so many examples of great work in the VR/AR space to choose from, but we decided to whittle our list down to 10 for no reason.
Hit us up on Twitter, LinkedIn, or whatever if you see something cool and want to share!