This article, by Vandana U, Editor, STQ, was published in issue 06 of Social Technology Quarterly. Summary: For brands, apps serve as a lasting marketing channel that enables direct contact with target audience. They offer not plain engagement but holistic experiences. Here are some activities conducted by brands combined with online, offline and augmented reality elements that can awe any marketer.

1. Selling technologies by providing the space to any customer to experience
a device before purchasing adds to the whole experience of buying a great
device. With this idea replicated for purchasing most goods and not only
devices, the verdict is clear. It is the experience that closes a deal. However,
in the age of social when with a click an experience can be made exclusive,
only a handful of experiences online really follow the key word: exclusive.
Here is a portfolio of events and experiences enhanced by technologies.
These represent the incredible results and outcomes achieved through a
mix of behaviours, activities, and technology.
Smart businesses are using technologies to create integrated physical,
digital, mobile, and social shopping experiences and events where customers
can access plethora of information while they shop. Such events that go
across all marketing and shopping channels provide the insights and data
one can innovate with. Stores are rolling out apps that help accomplish rich
experiences with each customer. These events, activities, and experiments
are great examples of embracing the smart customer with smart technologies
and provide meaningful cohesive customer experience. This ensures that
online and offline experiences are not separate but integrated for holistic
shopping experiences that lead to repeat purchases and brand loyalty.
Technology enables and experiences win!
The Proof is in
the Experience:Enhancing Experience by leveraging technologies
For brands, apps serve as a lasting
marketing channel that enables direct
contact with target audience.They offer not
plain engagement but holistic experiences.
Here are some activities conducted by
brands combined with online, offline and
augmented reality elements that can awe
any marketer.
by Vandana U.
Photo Credit: Micurs

2. Kuliza
A phenomenon that has driven crazy online
sales and engagement is augmented reality.
Virtual reality is a simulation of a real
environment; however, people get into a
different reality defined by the virtual space
and goes beyond physical reality. On the
other hand augmented reality, as Wikipedia
describes it, “is a live, direct or indirect,
view of a physical, real-world environment
whose elements are augmented by
computer-generated sensory input such as
sound, video, graphics or GPS data.” Erick
Schonfeld opines that Augmented Reality
enhances the real world with digital data,
and therefore it is more interesting than a
fabricated environment.
An experiment that caught my eye was the
mix of apps and augmented reality with pop-up
stores. The concept of pop-ups is not new any
longer on the social commerce space. With the
success of pop-ups soaring, adding augmented
reality to them seems a clever move.
A leading shoe brand dedicated to sport
culture, Airwalk set up invisible pop-up shops
in New York and Los Angeles. Inspired by
the idea of a treasure hunt, 600 pairs of
shoes were hidden. People who wanted a
pair of Airwalks - the Ladies Jim Plastic and
the men’s Jim Tennis - had to download the
GoldRun app on their smart phones. People
headed to Venice Beach, Los Angeles, or
1 Washington Square, New York City, to capture
virtual versions of the sneakers and GPS-
links to each location were provided. As soon
as people located a shoe on their phones and
took a photo of the shoe, they were directed to
Airwalk’s e-commerce site and given a pass
code link to pre-order the exclusive shoes.
For Airwalk, hangouts and famous locations
in the two cities turned into their stores.
Without a brick and mortar shop, 600
pairs of shoes were sold in a day. Airwalk
witnessed the highest amount of traffic on
its site during this event.
Airwalk:
Augmented Reality Campaign
Credit: Piermario

3. 21
Social Technology Quarterly 06
Another experience leveraged with social
media (not with an app, but a map) is
by Volkswagen Brazil. The motor brand
sponsored the Planeta Terra Festival in Sao
Paulo and promoted its car, the Fox, through
a mix of Twitter, Google Maps, and real
locations where prizes were hidden. Similar
to a treasure hunt, ten tickets to the festival
were hidden across the city and these were
displayed on a microsite using Google Maps.
However, one couldn’t zoom in to spot the
exact location unless it was tweeted about.
The more number of tweets containing the
2
hashtag “#foxatplanetaterra” were sent,
meant the closer the zoom on the map.
The first ones to arrive at a location where
tickets were hidden would win. It is reported
that in less than two hours after it began, the
campaign became the number 1 trending topic
in Brazil and the event stretched to 4 days.
With a mix of online and offline strategies,
Volkswagen generated a huge amount of word
of mouth. The campaign played on behaviours
through gamification, such as the desire to
win. With tweets acting as gates to levels of
zoom, the excitement of crossing each level
and being closer to the ticket pumped in the
required adrenalin.
Although Volkswagen did not offer an
experience directly in relation to the car,
which perhaps would have been more
relatable, the outcomes of this campaign
nevertheless were phenomenal.
Volkswagen:
#foxatplanetaterra
Social Technology Quarterly 06

4. 22
Kuliza
Speaking about motor companies, Fiat
too stepped onto the bandwagon of
experiences. Catalogues can be heavy
to read. Instead of making a boring read,
Fiat made people experience its catalogue
as a part of its Street Evo campaign. Fiat
broke the old pattern of visiting a showroom,
checking a catalogue, and test driving the
car, by creating a new gamified experience.
Promoting Punto Evo to its evolved and tech
savvy audience, Fiat came up with a mobile
app that read road signs as QR codes.
Instead of merely reading the features of the
car off a catalogue, after capturing a road
sign, one could get a visual on the feature of
the car on one’s phones. So if one scanned
the stop sign, the user would get to know
all about the new breaking system; a curve
ahead sign would inform the user about the
car’s intelligent lighting system that guides
the driver in curves. Now that sounds like a
regular app. However, Fiat added a game-
like experience by hiding hundreds of prizes
in the traffic signs, the first ones to discover
them won the prize. The campaign saw
1,000,000 traffic signs being spotted on
week one, an 82 percent increase in test
drives, and it is Fiat’s most-seen catalogue
in the company’s history. What made this
campaign a success was the incentive
part of it. Incentives and rewards make the
experience all the more fun and worthwhile.
The app and the experience manage to
satiate any visitor’s curiosity. Anyone buying
a car will have numerous questions, and
what better way than this to answer, through
a game-like experience.
3
Fiat:
Street Evo
Credit: Bokeh Burger

5. Social Technology Quarterly 06
4Lynx’s fallen angel campaign used
augmented reality to reflect itself as a
brand that brings a man’s fantasies very
close to reality. With the objective of
raising awareness and driving purchase
of the Lynx Excite range, Lynx exploits
social media to engage its target
audience - 18 to 24 year old males - with
angels seemingly falling from the skies
for them at London’s Victoria Station. A
live broadcast, yet highly personalized,
it bent towards the angle of literally
fulfilling fantasies. It talks to men in
an exciting way, making them feel that
they are attractive, by making a woman
‘literally’ fall for them. Also, combined
with a Facebook game in which Lynx
challenge users to try and release one
of the angels - model and actress Kelly
Brook - the campaign is a real winner.
The campaign worked because it turns
around a fantasy as if it were actually
logical for the angel to fall.
References:
“Augmented Reality.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia
Foundation Inc,17 Sep 2012.
Biela, Martin. Autofspace: Digital online
automotive campaigns. Autofspace, 08 May
2011.
Hui, Francisco Hui Francisco. PSFK. PSFK
Services,05 Oct 2010.
“Lynx Excite Angels meet the public at
London Victoria.” Lynx Effect Blog. Lynx, 14
Mar 2011.
Parker, David. “Lynx Excite ‘fallen angel’ by
Tullo MarshallWarren.” Campaign:The
Work.Haymarket Haymarket Business Media,
15 Mar 2011.
“Volkswagen Fox: Twitter Zoom Campaign.”
Digital Buzz.N.p.,02 Mar 2011.
Lynx:
Fallen Angel