The effective use of augmented reality in advertising communications

Abstract

Augmented Reality is a relatively new advertising medium, which up until now has only seen limited commercial success. The applications and value thereof, as an effective marketing communications tool has not been understood or quantified in the context of an industry which is currently going through profound changes. To this end, this research attempts to answer some of the critical questions facing practitioners and academics within this field. Using audience engagement as a measure of efficacy, independent test groups were subject to various types of Augmented Reality as well as more traditional, media advertisements. Through the experiments, the impacts of contextual relevance, media integration and message style on Augmented Reality advertising, were tested. The findings strongly support contextual relevance as a key characteristic for a successful Augmented Reality advertising implementation. In addition, it was found that this medium also had a significant impact on the audience’s visual and emotive levels of engagement with the subject matter. It was also found through the testing and analysis that the most receptive population group for Augmented Reality advertising are young female Millennials.