Augmented Reality: how do I get started? Five easy steps.
19 Aug 2021, Posted by in Technologies
OK, I want to use AR. How do I get started? Five easy steps.
Do you work in marketing? Or advertisement, branding or sales? Would you like to take advantage of the many benefits AR brings but are new to or inexperienced with immersive technologies? I think I can offer some help.
Selecting the right cost-effective AR solution for your company can be a mind-boggling task. However, if you ask the right questions you’ll find that AR is surprisingly affordable. A simple AR strategy may add less than $10K to your budget.
- Identify and set up your goal
- What do you want to do with AR? Extend your brand? Provide support for your products and services?
- What tools do you already have? Website? Mobile application(s)? How or where do you plan to add AR?
- Set up a budget
- If you are exploring if AR is suitable for you, running a pilot project is a good idea. Decide on the sum you want to invest.
- Set up a period of time for the pilot or initiative. This will help you measure success with analytics.
- Keep in mind the audience you are trying to reach
- This is important in selecting a distribution channel (for example, if you are trying to reach users over 35, Snapchat would not be a good choice, on the other hand, if your audience is under 35 it is a great choice.)
- Understand the logistics and timing
- Be clear on the kind of AR you are interested in implementing.
- Understand the main differences between AR technologies.
- Make sure you set up a realistic timeline.
- Use analytics, make sure you can measure results
- Make sure you collect and analyze data.
- What you learn will be directly linked to the goals you set up for the project.
- Make sure the data sampling you are using covers enough ground to make an objective assessment.
If you don’t have a team well versed in immersive technologies, the best approach is to start with a platform or tools of well-established AR platforms. While AR technologies and platforms are growing fast, here is a list of some of the top options you may want to consider
- ARKit from Apple (not cloud-based) https://developer.apple.com/augmented-reality/
- ARCore from Google (not cloud-based) https://developers.google.com/ar
- SparxWorks integrated SaaS AR platform, supports cloud base AR, Wikitude, ARkit, and ARcore in addition to WebAR https://sparxworks.com/
- Wikitude https://www.wikitude.com/
- Snapchat studio https://lensstudio.snapchat.com/
- Many others.
If you want to learn more about our versatile AR platform, please contact me or visit our website www.sparxworks.com or see us on November 15 at www.ARExperience.us. This experiential conference will bring together the top brands and agencies with the hottest companies and services in AR in a collaborative way to foster the growth of our AR community. We look forward to seeing you there at the Faena Hotel in Miami beach.
