Augmented Reality in Marketing – Thumbs Up

I’ve written on augmented reality (AR) a few times since this blog began.  In the past year, it seems like it’s popping up more and more.  For example The Next Web wrote about some uses of augments reality in different marketing campaigns.  Check out the whole list here.  Here are some of the success stories:

Airwalk Jim Shoe: In November, Airwalk used an augmented reality app from GoldRun to launch invisible pop-up stores which sold a limited edition of the Jim shoe in New York and LA. To access the invisible store, customers had to use the app to locate virtual Jim shoes at dedicated locations and take a photo of the shoe to gain a pass code to the Airwark e-commerce site. Airwalk reported that since then its e-commerce site has witnessed the most traffic in the company’s history.

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Tissot Reality: Through its website Tissot lets users print and cut out a paper strip in order to try on virtual watches. Tissot showcased the application with an interactive Selfridges window display. This reportedly resulted in increasing in-store sales at Selfridges by 85%, while theYouTube views of the campaign have surpassed 70,000.

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Len Kendall, co-founder at the3six5, Digital Account Supervisor at GolinHarris and writer for GOOD singled out the Star Wars Arcade Falcon Gunner: “ I love this concept because it falls into the augmented reality realm and it’s incredibly simple. As of today, many AR applications are unapproachable to the masses because 1) they’re not used to the technology or 2) they don’t see the investment necessary to learn the nuances of individual AR apps are worth the time of the outcome. In other words, the entertainment or utility of these applications isn’t outweighing the input.

I’m interested to see where AR goes from here.  Will it ever hit “the big time” (ie will my mom ever know what it is?) or will it always remain a niche medium that just excites technophiles and marketing folk?  I think that there are some great possibilities out there for the technology and I’m hoping that it reaches mainstream success.

Gap Logo – Thumbs Down

UPDATE: Gap went back to their old logo, which was probably their best way out of this mess.  I doubt this was an orchestrated stunt, but I don’t think it is impossible that it was.  Read more about the switch back at AdAge.com

There’s been a bunch of buzz around the Gap logo recently (and not the good kind).  Without any sort of announcement, on Monday, they changed their iconic, classic logo from this:To this generic, uninspired logo:

In my senior year at Boston College, I took a class in Photoshop and there was one student that lacked either the motivation or skill (possibly both) to put together any decent projects. The Gap logo looks like something he would produce.  I can even imagine our sarcastic teacher commenting on it during the assignment review period at the beginning of every class.

“Okay, lets check this one out now. Hmm… What did you do here?  You spelled out Gap in a basic font. Okay… Then what’s this over here? A gradient box, huh?…..Interesting stuff Jerry*”

After everyone started ripping on the new Gap logo online, Gap posted this message on their Facebook page:

Thanks for everyone’s input on the new logo! We’ve had the same logo for 20+ years, and this is just one of the things we’re changing. We know this logo created a lot of buzz and we’re thrilled to see passionate debates unfolding! So much so we’re asking you to share your designs. We love our version, but we’d like to see other ideas. Stay tuned for details in the next few days on this crowd sourcing project.

I have no idea how they could ‘love’ their version, but I’m really interested to see where they go from here.  Will they force the new ugly logo down everyone’s throats? I can’t imagine they will really take someone else’s idea from their ‘crowd sourcing project.’  Will they go back the old one?

What if Gap is pulling a Joaquin Phoenix on us all and is going to elaborate measures all for a publicity stunt?  I doubt that’s the case, but an interesting (sinister) possibility to consider.  They did get people to start talking about Gap when no one cared about it before.

More fun with the gap logo:

Follow @OldGapLogo and @GapLogo on Twitter.

Make your own crappy logo: Crap Logo Yourself

*Jerry is not his real name

Microsoft Trying To Be Cool – Thumbs Down

I’m sure you have seen a YouTube video of a cool flash mob.  Even some “flash mob” type commercials, obviously for a brand, are still entertaining (the T-Mobile video of people singing in London comes to mind).

I bet you have also been inside an Apple Store to try out or buy some of their products.

Well, Microsoft decided to put these two things together (an Apple store and a “flash mob” type of event with their employees) in an uninspiring display of song and dance at the Microsoft Store in Mission Viejo:

This is what the original poster of the video said on his blog: Mid way through our visit the entire store broke out into song. Now I have seen this gimmick before at Coldstone Creamery and I know how they have been criticized in the media for it, but here it did not seem forced nor contrived, I would honestly say that this was the staff letting go, having some fun and not taking the brand all to seriously.

Really?? I think it looks both forced and contrived.

He also said this about the look of the store: I guess I have been disconnected from the platform for quite a while because I did not even realize that Microsoft had store but I have heard so many great things about Windows 7 I just had to check it out. I half expected the store to be a bland uninspiring cheap knockoff of an Apple Store, but WOW was I in for a surprise.

Really?? To me, the store looks exactly like an Apple Store.  If I didn’t know it was a Microsoft Store, I would think it was selling iPhones and MacBooks.  All the details seem the same – right down to the t-shirts and lanyards the employees are wearing.

In summary and in conclusion, the video of the Microsoft employees breaking out into dance has a 1.5 star rating on YouTube.  I’m surprised it isn’t lower.

(Check out the original blog post, and commentary on Engadget)