The newest frontier
At The American Genius, we cover augmented reality and virtual reality marketing quite a bit because the potential for businesses is just so freaking cool! These apps can go a long way to enhancing the customer experience, especially in cases where you can’t experience the product before you buy it.
This has been the case with live event marketing since ecommerce allowed you to buy tickets online. Here, we can see many examples of how AR and VR can improve the purchase experiences for customers:
Exclusive content access
Back in 2012, the Philadephia Eagles gave fans exclusive content access to season ticket holders using augmented reality.
By hovering their smartphone’s camera over the ticket picture while using the team’s official app, they could access distinct videos for each game.
During their 2011 playoff run, the Dallas Mavericks augmented the tickets for playoff games by giving ticket holders access to an interactive game.
Using an exclusive AR app, fans could point their camera at their ticket and play as the Mavericks in an interactive game.
Helpful information
The Royal Challengers Bangalore, an Indian Premier League Cricket team, enhanced their tickets using augmented reality in 2013. Through Point, an AR browser, ticket holders had access to live traffic updates for the area around the venue, as well as parking information. Even better, users could call a cab from within the app to get them to the game!
Pre-purchase
Ticket marketplace Rukkus recently introduced Seat360, a virtual-reality experience that allows app users to experience the view of any ticketed seat available in the Rukkus marketplace. No more craning your neck to see the game around a concrete beam; you can make sure you have the best seat in the house. While veteran competitor StubHub offers similar functionality, Rukkus’ VR experience uses real venue footage to create a near-perfect preview of your seats.
Events from your couch
Sony put on a rock show through smartphones using an AR app. Through the app, users could scan a music festival poster to see virtual performances of local bands playing the festival.
So, why does all of this matter?
These concepts in action prove that augmented reality and virtual reality can improve every facet of your marketing.
You can use the technology to improve many parts of the customer journey, both before and after their purchase decision. In doing so, you can make your product more appealing, as Rukkus did with their ticket marketplace. Or, you can use it to solidify your live event experience, as many sports team have done. Improving these experiences goes a long way to projecting your brand as tech-savvy and rooted in the pursuit of perfect customer service. That’s a brand customers can get behind.
