I love new technology. And I love the excitement of playing with the latest execution of any new technology that I see. OK, OK… Augmented Reality isn’t necessarily new, but I’m safe to say it still remains on the fringe of our day-to-day lives. When this fringe tech meets my other passion – watches, then I get even more excited – excitement that didn’t last long unfortunately.
As with any fringe tech, Augmented Reality promises a lot, the possibilities are amazing and the applications endless. Aside from the myriad of functional applications AR will give us, the possibilities for companies to market their wares in an engaging way are also fascinating. Allowing me to experience the product before purchase? Where do I sign up?
So what can hold it back? Well – making it really hard to use and time consuming can’t help the cause, but it’s ultimately the reliance on home kit and the assumption that people know how to use it that could cause its demise before it even gets going.
Let me explain…
I opened up my latest GQ magazine to find a double page advert from watch makers Tissot. In the ad was a detachable watch shaped Augmented Reality marker that I could strap around my wrist….so far so good. I’m excited, I’m guessing that I can see the latest watch in situ – what a great way to engage a potential watch buyer! However, the add doesn’t allude to much else, which is the start of the problem – just a few meaningless icons. Not many people outside of the industry actually know what AR is…so how does Tissot expect users to understand what they need to do next? This ad assumes too much.
On the advert is a URL and, as I know what AR is, I fire up my laptop and type it in expecting to find the gateway to AR watch nirvana. Not yet. I have the same meaningless icons and a video, which isn’t why I’m here and doesn’t help me in the slightest. It tells me to print out the marker I have already, turn on my webcam (OK, this may sound stupid, but how many of you non-techies know how to do this on a laptop? Go on, try it yourself… see?) and then at the bottom I have to download something… ok I’ve invested 6 mins of my time thus far (mostly trying to turn on my webcam!!) but I’m still intrigued, I have a decent web connection, I hit download and fill in the form… to be told that my download will be approx 5 minutes on a fast broadband line. This is starting to get tedious; most users don’t know what AR is and would have switched off ages ago. I’m sure Tissot don’t just want die-hard fans to do this… Nevertheless I’ll give it the benefit – this better be good. So download complete, I have a setup file. I have to install something on my laptop. More time, more frustration, still no AR. Patience wearing thin.
Finally, I have the thing installed, webcam on, excitement high, to be faced with a very fuzzy webcam image of me with a small Tissot watch, that looks very low tech due to my poor webcam. Was it worth it? Sorry, not at all. If anything it was a negative experience which I’m sure wasn’t the brief. The massive potential of AR is there and I can see they have invested heavily, but the problem is that Tissot can’t control the environment in which their AR is being shown and my home technology makes their offering look poor. And I have a decent home setup.
So how likely is it that an everyday user will go through that process again with another AR campaign? Slim probably. Sadly things like this can kill AR in its tracks before it has a chance to take off.
It’s not all bad however. Some companies are really nailing AR. Lego for example took up the flag early and clearly understand how it can really engage their target audience at point-of-purchase, where the technology can be rolled out in a controlled way. In Lego’s case the equipment they use in their fixtures is built in and provides perfect user performance every time – the camera is top notch, the lighting perfect, the computer running the application is fast enough etc. But that infrastructure remains static, it has only one function. So trying to get that same functionality at home is always going to be a tall order for any company.
My hope is that it will be the mobile platform that will be at the forefront in keeping everyday Augmented Reality alive, utilising built in functionality, geo-location and targeted mobile search to empower the user and the marketer alike. And I continue to be very excited about that.