5 Mistakes AR Companies Are Making

1. Trackable What?

When I first set foot in the industry, I was told to call all AR-enabled images "trackable images" – a term that made absolutely no sense to me. My co-workers were so used to this adjective that they were reluctant to change.
Until recently, we noticed clients were also having problems deciphering the meaning of "trackable" at first glance, hence the urgency to opt for a different adjective. After debating between "trigger" and "target", we have decided to go for the latter because it can be understood by majority of the literal population.

2. AR Everything for Everyone!

"If you try to be everything to everyone you'll be nothing to no one." Classic marketing quote. Go figure.

3. Concealed Teachable Moments

Courtesy of Google Glasses, more people are starting to learn about augmented reality. Still, if you approach any person on the street and ask them "have you heard of augmented reality"? You'll mostly get two types of answers: 1) Nope. 2) Is it something like Google Glasses? And if you're lucky, you might be able to score an occasional "Yes". I know. Sooner or later, the mass market will adapt to AR technology. Until then, AR companies have to understand the importance of delivering knowledge to consumers at the "teachable moment". More public awareness will lead to more consumer demand, which will bring them more business clients, and in the end, benefiting the industry as a whole.

Here is Merchlar's Demo Reel, which will give you an idea of what AR is (for those who are still new to it)

4. So Good at the Technology They Forgot About...

The creative. Technology is just a tool. How to convince your clients that you're making the best out of it? This circles back to the essence of THE IDEA MUG: advocating for the creative use of augmented reality technology. Speaking from an agency perspective, AR is a great tool to instill magic into brands and to spur imagination. Creativity comes into place when we want to convince clients that AR and their brands will fall in love; once partnered up, will invite customers to take on new and engaging experience.

5. Pushing Customers Off the Cliff

GQ brought augmented reality to its September 2012 issue with their GQ Live app. Yes, it is incredibly cool. However, it seems like the magazine took its readers through this romantic walk, struck them with awe with this technology, and then pushed them off the cliff by disabling AR features in their October issue. We don't want AR to be a fad, but something that can ultimately bring value to everybody involved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Olivia Siu is the Marketing Director at Merchlar.