Wise Foods wanted to make its Cheez Doodle brand appealing to a broader market. The snack food is typically purchased by parents for kids, but Wise Foods set about capturing a younger demographic. "We wanted to stretch that market to the tween and teen audience," says Kevin Foltz, the brand manager. So the company embarked on a new marketing campaign that included an animated alternative rock band called the Cheez Dudes. What really set the campaign apart is a contest, using a cutting-edge technology that merges virtual reality with real-world images, that challenges consumers to build their own music video with the Cheez Dudes.
The technology is known as augmented reality, and it's taking hold across the marketing world as consumer brands as varied as Kia Motors, Nestle, and Frito-Lay look for newfangled ways to push snack foods, cereal, and automobiles to a younger demographic. The hope for marketers is that augmented reality will engage an audience more deeply than other forms of social media, such as viral videos, fan pages on Facebook, or Twitter followings. The total market for augmented reality is expected to hit $350 million in 2014, up from about $6 million in 2008, according to ABI Research. Of the total five years from now, almost $170 million will come from mobile augmented reality advertising.
How exactly does augmented reality marketing work? Many campaigns require consumers to use computers and Webcams. For Wise, digital marketing firm Zemoga created a contest called Rock the Cheez! that requires consumers to print and cut out small square patterns from the Web site and then place them in front of the computer's Webcam. When viewed on screen, each square becomes an animated character set in whatever real-world background or stage the consumer chooses to create. The contestant who can create the most popular video by Dec. 31 will win the makings of his or her own garage rock band, including a Fender Stratocaster guitar, a Fender Precision Bass, a complete drum set, and other items valued at more than $2,600.
Kia Motors wanted to create an engaging marketing and branding initiative for its 2010 Soul automobile, which is designed for the twentysomething demographic. So it went with an augmented reality game created for Facebook featuring the same animated hamsters that appear in Kia's television commercial. In Kia's game, the player sits in front of a Webcam and controls on-screen action -- grabbing and inserting a hamster into a Kia Soul, for example -- by a virtual magnet connected to his or her forehead. It may sound crazy but it's oddly compelling to watch. The game uses augmented reality technology created by Total Immersion. (continued...)
© 2009 Business Week Online under contract with MarketWatch. All rights reserved.
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