As technologies go, augmented reality (AR) is not new, but it wasn’t until Pokémon GO exploded onto the scenethis time last summer–quickly becoming the most used mobile app in history–that consumers and marketers were introduced to the potential of this revolutionary technology.
Although not anywhere near the top 10 in terms of marketing spend today, Pokémon GO points the way to a future where the real world and the digital world meet–helping consumers make better informed choices and companies make more sales.
“I would say we are not quite at the point where we’re seeing mass adoption in marketing yet, but there are a lot of use cases,” said Zontee Hou, a senior strategist at Convince & Convert, a digital marketing advisory firm. “The reason we’ve been talking around AR for a while but not necessarily seeing much of in-play is we have a chicken-and-egg problem.”