With a press of a button, a sofa appears in your living room. So will a table, chair, lamp, nightstand, and a million-and-one other popular home furnishings. But don’t try sitting on that cushy sofa, or setting fine Chinaware on the table. None of this stuff is usable. In fact, it’s not even real. All of the home items are coming via an update to IKEA’s 2013 catalog app. Or more specifically, the Augmented Reality (AR) feature built into the app.
For those unfamiliar with the territory, AR is an amazing technology that superimposes digital imagery onto a user’s view of a real world scene — whether still photograph or video. Essentially, it’s a hybrid of real and computer-generated.
The IKEA version of Augmented Reality does one better – it actually saves consumer’s hours of back-straining labor. Users simply launch the app, and voila – they’ll see exactly how selected home items will look in their living room, kitchen, or any other living space. Yes, the tables and chairs are crafted from bits and bytes. Nevertheless, they seem startlingly real.
How do customers make the magic happen?
- Launch the app with a mobile device.
- Scan a product from the IKEA catalog.
- Set the catalog on the floor in the precise location intended for the product.
- Point the mobile camera at the catalog, allowing the room to be visible on the display screen.
Presto! The chosen home item materializes, superimposed on the mobile display screen — exactly in your intended location. From the user’s point of view, the sofa or table is in the room – real enough to lay their fingers on!
Don’t like the location? No problem. Move the catalog elsewhere, and the cushy sofa shows up in that spot! You could rearrange all day, without breaking a sweat. Here’s a view of the technology in action.
The brand marketing potential for this type of AR application, of course, extends to a slew of other retail products. Landscaping, statues, roofing, carpeting, drapery, windows, and more all could be superimposed in both private and public locations. Your kids could try on new school clothes all day long. And how would that sparkling convertible look in your driveway? Augmented Reality gives consumers an exciting new way to ‘try before you buy’.
If you have any questions or comments about using augmented reality to enhance your brand marketing efforts, or about any brand-related topic, feel free to send them our way. You can connect with the Young Company team at 949-376-8404 #4033 or bart@youngcompany.com. And be sure to follow us for the latest brand marketing news and tips.