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And now, without further ado, we present to you, Episode III – Augmented Reality Application and Engagement.

We have come along way on our quest to learn more about Augmented Reality. During Episode I, we discussed what components you need to get your campaign off the ground. In Episode II, we rounded up a few examples of AR Campaigns from market leaders in a number of industries. Moving along in our AR saga, now we will take a look at the future of AR advertising in mobile advertising, discuss consumer involvement and crowdsourcing, and discuss practical uses for this technology.

As our lives are becoming increasingly more mobile, marketers are looking for ways to engage consumers on the go. The Google Android Powered HTC G1 (phone) has a browser that was released in June to support AR functionality. Apple has recently relaxed the restrictions on their API access to video (which is crucial to AR) on the iPhone OS (3.1). Looking forward, this is an opportunity for marketers to use AR on the go.

Augmented Reality offers a new level of advertising interactivity to consumers who own camera phones. Camera phones allow the consumer to plant virtual information tags anywhere they are. The idea is to engage crowdsourcing to create an augmented reality. This is a potentially a risky move as it puts a great amount of trust and responsibility into the consumer’s hands. Although crowdsourcing can backfire, it can also offer a great way to build brand engagement with your audience.

Movie posters will include triggers for interactive trailers and treasure hunts to create an interactive mobile experience. Wired magazine predicts that every mainstream blockbuster in 2010 will have a mobile AR campaign (being the optimists that they are). This technology could also be used to integrate static advertising with tangible products in the retail space, offering useful information to consumers through virtual tags.

Though many AR campaigns have met success, much of this can be attributed to the wow factor and human curiosity. Once the novelty has worn off, it will be much more difficult to create this level of impact. AR as a new technology can be costly. It consists of three parts, recognition, tracking and rendering – all of which require sophisticated Artificial Intelligence and 3D modeling applications. And let’s not forget that marketers are limited only to those consumers who own the peripherals to make this work.

For now, AR will be left to the big budget brands that are able to afford these attention-grabbing ads. At L7 Creative we believe that when considering an AR Campaign, the focus should be on finding a practical use for this technology. We must find a way to add value to customer’s lives to stay relevant. Effort needs to be minimized for the consumer to reduce the drop out rate. Currently the consumer must print the trigger, download software, and figure out how it works. This can be a timely process that looses many potential customers along the way. It can be a great way to actively engage consumers as long as the message stays brand relevant and the purpose is productive. Though AR has great potential and may be at a tipping point, it still has many hurdles to leap to prove that it is more than just a media tactic trend.