PointRoll, Oddcast partner for augmented reality
The platform is called Barrier-Free Augmented Reality.
Augmented Reality (AR) is advertising in real-time based on a consumer’s interaction with visual technology. Web cam based, the consumer interacts with the ad or content which responds to their actions or ‘markers’. For example, during a Burger Kind AR ad, the consumer held up a dollar bill and an ad played based on their movement.
“Oddcast is a longstanding partner of ours and remains at the forefront of participation marketing,” said Max Mead, vice president of business development and strategy with PointRoll. “PointRoll brings its expertise and innovation in engaging, rich media advertising experiences. By integrating Oddcasts’s barrier-free [augmented reality] technology to PointRoll’s display advertising banners, we’re able to arm brands with the capability to reach consumers in a more personal way than ever before.”
In the past, marketers utilizing augmented reality have found it necessary to leave a type of marker behind – printed bar codes or semi codes pointing to a specific device, usually a webcam. The consumer held up the marker to the webcam to being the ad interaction. Oddcast, through the partnership with PointRoll is dropping the need for a marker by allowing the consumer’s face to ‘mark’ the area; this should help consumers to engage on a deeper level with the brand.
“Until today, AR technology required consumers to use a ‘marker’ for the webcam…to manipulate movement of the experience,” said Mead. “[This partnership] allows advertisers to more easily bring consumers immediately into the AR experience without relying on them to print out or find documents in a magazine or elsewhere. [It] lowers some of the barriers for using AR and makes it more accessible for advertisers.”
AR is still a relatively new type of marketing for brands in the online environment, but with mobile and social arenas skyrocketing more brands are beginning to try to engage in this way.
“For marketers, the branding opportunities are stronger with AR…as it offers lighter touch-points and can be more easily scaled and distributed across sites and new ad units,” said Mead.