Augmented Reality’s eye-popping potential realised

Meet Cosmo. He’s blue, he’s a Martian and he just leaped out at me from a chocolate bar.

His sudden appearance was magical, but was not a result of a spell. Rather, he appeared in an app aimed at that chocolate bar. Cosmo is part of a new generation of characters that exist largely in a world of augmented reality (AR).

AR is seen by many as the poor relation of virtual reality (VR), since it also comprises virtual images, but without the immersive experience. It has one major advantage over VR: it doesn’t need a headset and can be viewed on almost any smartphone. All it takes is downloading an app designed to view the relevant virtual content.

Cosmo is one of a family of Martian characters – along with Buzz, Cupido and Luna – created by chocolate brand Cadbury to launch a series of limited-edition combination slabs. Each character is “inserted” on the wrapper of one of the slabs, coming to life only when the Cadbury Martians app is opened and the wrapper is viewed through the app. If two wrappers are scanned simultaneously, the Martians from each slab appear to interact with each other.

Says Grant van Niekerk, chocolate category lead at Mondelez – manufacturers of Cadbury chocolates in South Africa: “Using product design and innovation through packaging, we have improved customer engagement with meaningful and enticing interactions.

“We teamed up with LikeDigital to turn the new limited-edition chocolate wrappers into an augmented reality storytelling device for the Martian figurines.”

Cadbury Martians represent another step in AR going mainstream in South Africa. This and other AR campaigns continue to feed off the wild popularity of the Pokemon Go mobile game that set the world alight in 2016. It’s almost forgotten today, but its impact lives on, having demonstrated how many smartphones are AR-capable.

Brands have woken up to its potential and increasingly seek out a more eye-popping way to communicate their messages. LikeDigital is one of numerous agencies creating augmented reality apps and experiences in South Africa. And chocolate slabs are among a number of product categories embracing the technology as it goes mainstream in this country.

Premium alcohol brand owner Pernod Ricard asked digital agency Sea Monster to give its whisky-loving customers “a new digital brand experience that could be shared with friends at any time”, via an interactive virtual whisky tour.

The mobile app offers an AR experience of a live whisky tasting and a virtual tour of the whisky-making process. The app guides users in placing glasses of different bottlings of Chivas Regal, Jamesons, Ballantines and AR in the warehouse The Glenlivet on a virtual tasting mat. The user scans the glasses on the mat through the app. It then pops up a virtual tour of how the whisky was made, “from grain to glass”, and tasting notes about the “nose” – the unique aroma of each beverage – as well as the first taste and the lingering aftertaste.

Moving from the sublime to the responsible, Sea Monster also created an AR app for Metropolitan Life, to educate the public about the importance of life insurance. If you’ve never heard of it, well, not every AR app sets the pulses racing. At the other end of the speed spectrum, petroleum brand Engen raced into AR even before Pokemon unleashed its virtual monsters.

In 2015, it roped in British-based AR studio Zappar, which provides a platform for AR experiences in any medium. Zappar created an unusual mobile racing game for Engen QuickShops, available to any customer who spent R30 or more. They would receive till slips imprinted with “Zapcodes”, which triggered an invitation to download the Zappar app. If the app was already installed, it launched a game called Rocket Racer, with a new car every week and a link to social media, a live leader board and weekly prizes. I

If you have to learn to run before you can race, Boksburg-based bizAR Reality had the answer for Adidas. The shoe manufacturer wanted a creative way for people to get a sneak peek of their new boots before the official launch and commissioned bizAR to create an interactive AR experience.

Like Zappar, bizAR also offers an off-the-shelf AR platform, which it says allows businesses “to create an immersive experience at a fraction of the cost”.

AR in the warehouse

The proliferation of such apps, platforms and agencies is a clear signal that AR is now becoming a standard part of the marketing lexicon. But AR has a life beyond the smartphone, and beyond marketing and branding.

This month, electronics giant Toshiba announced its new “assisted reality smart glass system” had arrived in South Africa. It comprises a pocket computer with a lens attachment called the xPick, designed to provide “pick-by-vision” order-picking capability in warehouses.

Unlike smart glasses that provide AR overlays on a pair of spectacles, this is a “monocular” device that can be attached to spectacles, a lensless frame, or even a headband or safety helmet. Intended for industrial use, it is designed to assist in manual order picking, sorting, inventory management, and goods receipt.

Referred to as “assisted reality”, the lens displays instructions into the user’s field of vision. It can integrate numerous functions, from barcode scanning to weight checking, all with the aim of streamlining workflows. Augmented reality, it appears, has truly grown up.

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