Pop group Black Eyed Peas released a new ad campaign tied to their single The Time (Dirty Bit). In the corresponding music video, lead singer will.i.am uses a smartphone to make a video game version of himself pop out of a billboard, which has been duplicated in an augmented reality experience.
“Technology has finally caught up with our imaginations,” wrote will.i.am. “[Our album] is symbolic of adopting these new technologies, such as augmented reality.”
Augmented reality has already been used for marketing by large corporations like Lego, Mini Cooper and Red Bull, and it’s only set to get bigger. Industry analysis firm ARC Chart thinks that revenues generated worldwide by mobile phone augmented reality applications will reach $2.3 billion by 2015.
“Just like we did with the hype around the iPhone, we capitalized on the hype over AR,” said Alexander Trieb, co-founder of Tripwolf, a Vienna-based social travel-guide. “We can’t monetize AR as a standalone application, but it definitely adds to the value we provide the user and the advertiser.”
Citing the Black Eyed Peas app, Jan Schlink of Metaio thought of how things could evolve. “We could have a hyperlink on that poster to download sound samples or hidden bonus tracks,” he said, “So you stand in front of a poster and can directly download the sound just by triggering it through the image.”
Source: DW World
