Is AR the real Web3?

What happens when instead of advertising to people, you let them 'touch and hold' your brand?

Like many people who visit Cannes, I ended up shopping for a new dress.

I ultimately declined to making a purchase, because it just wasn’t me. Plus it wasn’t real.

The ‘dress’ was actually part of an exhibition hosted by Snap and Vogue centered on the intersection of augmented reality technology and fashion. Using a special Snap lens, I was able to scan real displays featuring mannequins wearing splashy outfits, as giant virtual mushrooms popped up in my camera alongside the ‘real’ items.

In another room, I was able to point my camera at a piece of art, and then see/read information about the painting and the artists. And later in the display of course, a mirror was powered by Snap’s tech which allowed me to ‘try on’ multiple piece of high end couture.

It was all very impressive, if not a bit clunky - maybe because the tech and or network was slightly laggy, but also because I’m not a frequency Snap user.

Regardless, the point of this display was - I believe - mostly about inspiring the possibilities for creators, rather than showing off any real advertising or retail functionality. But it’s easy to imagine the possibilities.

It reminded me of Snap’s NewFront a few weeks ago, when the company showed off just how many of its users use AR in their Snaps all the time, and how frequently they do so using brand images. I found it pretty mind blowing, probably because I don’t live in the Snap world. I wonder how many brands are truly dialed into this behavior- or have a sense of where it’s going?

Of course, what happens in Snap is one thing. If AR is truly going to become mainstream, and game changing, it needs to be everywhere. You can absolutely imagine this tech being used at museums, in schools, at sporting events, certainly at stores, and maybe even the backyard? But how does it get there?

That’s what Niantic is up to. The company behind Pokemon Go (which is still huge by the way) is working to socialize AR, and tap into armies of developers to map out and stock the real world with AR items - or reason to interact with everything. These are the guys that actually built Google Earth, so they have a good track record for projects of this literal global scope.

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At Cannes, the company showed off a viewfinder that projected a virtual octopus and pirate ship onto the sea, along with dots plotting information. In addition, execs from Niantic showed me an app where you can play virtual tic tac toe at your family table, or mini golf in your backyard.

Lots of brands have already tried this stuff with Niantic as well. Michelob Ultra created an experience - you didn’t even need an app - were you could project a beer filled picnic table in the backyard. Paramount let me create a call sign and try on a virtual Top Gun helmet using my camera.

The key for this 'medium’ to grow is to get these types of activations of the cool-test gimmick-stage. Adam Shlachter, Niantic’s Head of Marketing, Strategic & Brand Partnerships told me that 750,000 people interacted with virtual items at Coachella. (who needs real psychedelics). Presumably, for younger consumers, this is becoming a regular part of their lives.

What will this mean for marketing and media? I don’t know yet. It all feels very 1996, when brand wrestled with questions like, should I build a website. how do I get people there? What will they do when they show up?

I wonder, are these AR activations like old microsites? Are they ‘ads’ at all? Like the early 1990s, if this is going to be a medium, it’s going to need standards, ways to measure it, ways to value it. We’re just writing the basic rules right now.

At another Cannes session, I heard someone utter the old phrase-nothing beats sight sound and motion for storytelling. I still tend to agree with that. Maybe that changes with AR?

Is putting an AR image in your Snap, for example, like seeing a picture with someone wearing a Nike shirt? Or is the fact that you touch, move, and play with a brand’s image something more powerful? How are brands going to value these exposures?

I suppose it really depends on what AR becomes. I was chatting with another Cannes attendee who talked about how there seem to be two camps among investors- you either believe in VR, or in AR- not both. Right now, AR seems to have the edge in potentially being everywhere faster since it’s accessible to everyone with a phone. Meanwhile, VR is definitely breaking through thanks to Oculus, but most of us are still spending most of our time with other digital devices. We’re still waiting for potential game changing products from Apple and Meta.

In the meantime, it seems that while AR could enjoy wide adoption, but may not be as immersive or compelling as putting on goggles and transporting yourself to a completely different world. As it stands now, AR executions feel light and maybe fleeting. Yet again, it’s so early. The experiences are sure to become more compelling, and easy to use. For the development community, as well as marketers and media companies, there seems to be nothing holding them back from experimenting, since an AR mistake doesn’t seem too costly.

The more we start seeing AR-friendly places literally all over the globe, the more habitual the behavior should become, and the more creative and engaging the executions should be - theoretically. Maybe Niantic, Snap and others are really building the next internet, the next giant distribution channel, the world’s biggest ad network, right under our noses.

I don’t pretend to have the answer to these questions. I’m still trying to find a dress that goes with my hat.