How did you guys get into AR?
– Our primary focus is mobility – design and technology that help people when they are out of their homes and offices. Most of our designs and software applications come out as mobile applications. We see augmented reality as a game-changer in the future when it comes to mobile solutions. A few years ago, we were lucky to find a client that wanted to work with us as partners, even when our AR technology was still evolving. Today we’ve built a good foundation of skills and software for the future.
What is it like working with you guys?
– First, we look at the project as a business and ask ourselves whether our client can potentially expect a return on investment with the product. So it starts with the conversation about the business goals and what will be success criteria for later.
Once we’ve established a shared vision and understanding around the goal, the design process starts. Design starts from low-fidelity sketches and wireframes. At this stage, the focus is less on technical solutions. For the next step, we move to more high-fidelity mock-ups, that let our clients see the solution as it would be in reality.
At this stage, we also start testing the usability and make sure we’re not building anything that might be difficult for users to understand.
Technology starts during the design process and all the pieces land together at this step. Many hypotheses have been tested during the design phase already so that the tech work can be lean and fast.
To sum it up, probably what’s unique with us is that every project combines three disciplines into the project – product management, UX design and software engineering.
How would you describe your company culture?
– It’s very diverse, accepting and friendly. That culture with flat hierarchy creates a team flow on a professional level as well. It is probably the reason why our average length of service among employees ranks higher than it does for other companies in the industry. That creates very stable but still an inspiring team for our clients as well.
What is your company’s core expertise?
– Our core expertise is mobility – how to solve people’s problem when they’re on the move. We use our skills of product management, UX design and software engineering to do that.
Do you offer any type of satisfaction guarantee or revisions of completed work?
– We are following the same rule as many hairdressers: they can’t let anyone leave their salon with a mess in their hair. If there’s a disaster with someone’s hair, and they say the salon’s name out loud, the salon will lose customers. The same thing implies to our industry. There’s heavy competition. We can’t risk with our client being unsatisfied.
I’ve been living in a cave the last few years and just got back to work at the marketing department, can you explain to me why I should invest in an AR marketing campaign?
– Mostly it is about two things – you can do things that are physically impossible or very expensive, and you can do more with the medium you’ve been using already.
If you’re selling big boats and you want to demo them to your clients, you know it is rather difficult to carry them around and showcase. With AR, you could bring a virtual model with you and place it anywhere – at the expo, your showroom or client’s meeting room.
With existing mediums, we’ve targeted pre-visit and after-visit customers. So when posters are out there in train stations, you can make them live and engaging by adding a virtual layer to them. But even more – when customers leave after the first visit with something physical, why not invite them back with some virtual content. For example – tickets from the football stadium can trigger a virtual player to your home and invite you back to the next game.
What is your best tip for a brand looking to launch its first AR experience?
– Make sure it’s not a one-time project with fixed content. Use platforms that allow you to add and curate content independently and keep people trying your solution repeatedly.
What sort of AR experiences do you think we will see in the future, in terms of marketing?
– I think that in the future, AR will be more naturally implemented in our daily lives. Enabler to that will be hardware – the glasses we wear, car’s windscreen, maybe a window of a house. So instead of jumping into VR/AR session consciously and then finishing it, we will be included in the virtual world during our usual daily activities.
What are the risks and pitfalls with AR marketing? Describe what you would advise against doing.
– Today the technology has barriers that limit the users. When you need to install the application or put on the special VR set – it is a barrier that customers are not willing to do just to see some advertisement or even one-time useful content. As long as these barriers are there we need to have the content that is useful, engaging and evolving over a longer period of time.
Pick a brand and product that you like and tell me what sort of campaign you would create, given total freedom and an unlimited budget.
– Let’s take McDonald’s and their focus on children – Happy Meal. I’d focus on returning customers and add virtual content (augmented reality) to the toys. So when kids go home and play with the toys, they can take out the phone and discover an extra animated 3D content. That makes them engage with the toys and with the brand better. Also, it’s a far more sustainable way to make the toys entertaining.
How big can AR marketing get and what will it take for it to get there?
– It will go big for sure, but we have to wait for the hardware that has fewer barriers for users.
How would you define a successful AR marketing experience?
– I have a business background, and marketing ultimately has business goals. Sometimes not directly related to revenue but always measurable. That measurable goal defines the success 🙂
What is it about AR that gets you excited?
– It’s the cases where borderline of physical and virtual gets almost mixed. It’s when we start experiencing something physical, and it will slowly be mixed with virtual. So we get more out of the physical experience, but we’re not escaping into made-up virtual life.
What AR experience do you fantasize about experiencing in your lifetime?
– It’s probably something related to humans – when we can bring people from far distances closer to us into our lives.
STUDIO: Mobi Lab
