Virtual vs. Augmented Reality

Hi everyone

This week I wanted to mention 2 areas that hold a fascinating future for marketers - virtual and augmented reality.

To put it simply, virtual reality creates a whole new digital (virtual) world for people to interact with, while in augmented reality we add a digital layer over the real world (via PC, phone or other digital device) to enhance our view of the existing world.

It's the difference between Second Life virtual game for example, and this fascinating TATS augmented reality phone application.

Virtual reality was the hot topic a few years ago when talking about digital marketing potential, but it rarely gets a mention now.

But this recent overview in the Guardian article notes, virtual worlds are alive and doing very, very well - especially among younger audiences. Online world for kids Habbo has 135 million registered users alone, that's more than the population of most countries!

In virtual worlds brands are able to hold meetings, openings, have launch parties, create virtual showrooms, have exposure at different events - the possibilities are enormous. However despite all this success, you won't find a lot of marketers investing much there.

As the Guardian article says about Second Life: "Only a small fraction of its 19 million registered users are active, and it is still the creative laboratory of the genre."

Quite simply, the virtual experience is not interesting or immersive enough for most adults, yet. Until then, most marketers will keep their budgets on hold.

Augmented Reality, to me, is another story. AR has recently been highlighted in various marketing campaigns as a cool way to show your product via PC or mobile phone, such as in this concert launch by the BBC. But it is much more than just a gimmick, and the potential to change product and brand communications in remarkable ways:

- Create virtual maps/marketing information via phones: Check out world's first augmented reality browser, from Layar
- Connect you with social networks: An incredible augmented ID system from TATs to enhance your social and business networks
- Create digital shop fronts: Check out how we could all be buying clothes soon, in this digital shop front from Zugara
- Bring gaming to life: Want to see the future of gaming - how about a virtual pet on iphone?
- Change the way we teach/learn: How cool would it be if we all had school books like this?

There are endless possibilities to add useful and interesting information onto a world we, and marketers, are already in.

If you want a marketing reality we should start thinking about now for our products and campaigns, this is the one to watch.

Cheers, Rob

Feel free to add comments below, or for further questions or advice contact me at rob.h@th.arcww.com