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Facebook wants its advertisers to lean into the augmented reality craze.<\/p>\n
Following the rollout of a suite of interactive ads this past September<\/a>, the social giant announced today that augmented reality ads would be freely available to all marketers within its ad manager. With this capability, advertisers worldwide can now create AR effects within the company\u2019s free-to-use engine (Spark AR), integrate it into an ad campaign, and target their creation with the ease that comes with any other Facebook ad format.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the end of the day, what we\u2019re talking about is taking something that up until this point had been based on verbal language: You\u2019re on your phone, you\u2019re reading, and you\u2019re writing,\u201d explained Nada Stirratt, the company\u2019s VP of global marketing solutions.<\/p>\n But recently, Facebook has been steady-stepping into a \u201cmore visual experience,\u201d she continued. \u201cWhat we\u2019re doing now is that we\u2019re figuring out\u2014and helping our marketers figure out\u2014how to tap into that experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Augmented reality might sound more sci-fi than sellable, but adoption has been steadily ticking up among consumers worldwide thanks to platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok that offer easy-to-use AR filters. An eMarketer survey<\/a> from this past March counted more than 68 million people coming into contact with AR content at least once monthly. In 2020, this number is expected to spike to more than 77 million, and in 2021, it\u2019s expected to top out at 85 million.<\/p>\n Though Spark AR has been available across Facebook and Instagram since late 2018, Facebook has only allowed a few select brands to try their hands at the augmented tech for their ads until now.<\/p>\n This past October, for example, saw four different brands<\/a> pilot an augmented reality shopping experience directly within Instagram\u2019s app using the Spark engine. Via their phones\u2019 camera, shoppers could virtually try on eyewear and makeup courtesy of Warby Parker, Ray-Ban, and Mac and Nars Cosmetics, before checking out directly within the Instagram app<\/a>. Shoppers could also share their new look in Stories and recommend the products to their friends.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have a brand that lends itself to being physically used by consumers, other people want to try to do something exciting with that,\u201d Stirratt said.<\/p>\n But she was quick to add that AR possibilities for advertising extend beyond trying on products.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are all the examples where you\u2019re used to seeing AR,\u201d she added, pointing to the Instagram shopping experiences. \u201cBut [AR] isn\u2019t about just trying something on; it\u2019s suddenly making [this brand] stand for bringing this incredible joy and connectivity.\u201d<\/p>\n Take, for example, the Steve Madden-owned DTC luxury sneaker brand Greats, which was one of the brands\u2014along with Old Navy, Verizon, and others\u2014with access to Spark before its global rollout. Rather than using the augmented reality engine to flash any of its sneakers across the screen, the creative agency behind the ad\u2014New York-based outfit Agency Within\u2014wanted to connect consumers with \u201cthe overarching story\u201d behind the brand.<\/p>\n \u201cAR is this space where you can literally, in real time, co-create with your audience,\u201d said Zane Comer, Agency Within\u2019s executive creative director.\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cIt\u2019s about trying to be exploratory with how you can tell stories in this new, radically different medium.\u201d<\/p>\n Comer saw AR as an opportunity to expand on Greats\u2019 preexisting campaigns, short 30-second spots featuring the brand\u2019s shoes and the factories where they\u2019re built, with slogans like \u201cThis is a factory,\u201d and \u201cThis is a shoe.\u201d With the Spark platform, he was able to create an AR filter where someone viewing the ad could be emblazoned with the slogan \u201cYou are an ad.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s literally turning the audience into the ad itself,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what AR is at its core\u2014it\u2019s creating a two-way dialogue between a brand and an audience, but it hasn\u2019t really been tapped in a way that emphasizes its storytelling aspect.\u201d<\/p>\n He went on to say that every brand could, theoretically, tap into this type of AR-based storytelling, as long as they keep in mind that the medium is inherently collaborative, rather than delivering a premade piece of creative; brands and agencies need to feel comfortable with giving up that control over the end user\u2019s experience.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not up to us in terms of what\u2019s going to work,\u201d Comer went on. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s where the industry kind of has to step back and notice the shift here\u2014ultimately, it\u2019s a matter of adapting to what\u2019s actually working, and what\u2019s actually resonating with your audience.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nHow augmented reality can work for brands<\/h4>\n