What are the popular use-cases for WebAR?

There are hundreds of different valuable use-cases for Web-based Augmented Reality technology. A selection of the most popular use-cases are:

  • Out-of-Home Advertising (OOH) - Imagine billboard & train station poster campaigns that are brought to life in any standard smartphone.
  • Product Packaging - Bring your product packaging to life with interactive labels & engaging experiences in both 2D and 3D
  • Print Marketing - Works at almost any scale, from Direct Mail, Magazines, business cards, standard ISO dimensions (A1, A2, A3, etc.) to pullup banners.
  • E-Commerce - Give customers the ability to view any product in 3D in their own environment, activated through your website.
  • Online Deployment - Launch your WebAR experience from social media, email marketing or direct from your website.
  • Portals, mini-games and scavenger hunts - Provide immersive experiences for your audience, built bespoke for your brand. Use elements like gamification to engage customers and drive valuable actions.

If you're interested in seeing examples from each different use-case, you can take a look at a collection of experiences curated from some of the best WebAR Examples of the past year.

Alongside these popular use-cases, another notable mention should be on the 3D content used throughout these types of experiences. 3D content is one of the key building blocks to a WebAR experience, and tools such as glb.ee, the free online 3D model viewer streamline 3D workflows when working with clients. It's worth checking them out at glb.ee.

Which brands are currently using WebAR?

In 2020, we saw a huge amount of name-brands utilize WebAR within both B2C and B2C arenas. Some of the notable brand experiences included:

  1. EE, Rita Ora WebAR Campaign
  2. Michelob ULTRA Pure Gold, Taste of Nature Portal
  3. Kinder Supermarket Portal
  4. Porsche and Vogue Magazine Magazine Print Ads
  5. Nutanix Virtual Expo Booth

What types of activations can be used with WebAR?

  1. QR Codes - Simply open your phone's camera, and scan the QR code to access the AR webpage. We only use QR codes as a way to access the webpage – QR codes are not required for AR tracking!
  2. Short Links - We offer a short URL with every AR campaign, which should be placed alongside the QR code. This offers users an easy way to access the webpage, if they'd rather not scan a QR code.
  3. Direct Links - Embed a direct link to your AR webpage within a social media post, email blast, or website. For best results, use multiple channels to spread awareness of the AR content.
  4. NFC Chips - Embed an NFC chip in your printed materials. Users with a compatible phone can simply hold up their phone to the printed item, and tap "Go" to access the webpage.
  5. SMS Messaging - Send customers, friends or family a direct link to activate the experience. A simple tap from the SMS instantly activates the experience.
  6. Social Media Channels - Links from Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Snapchat and more are all available to directly link from.
  7. Television Advertising - Display QR codes within television advertisements to give consumers a way to activate experiences from their own home, watching TV.
  8. Banner Ads - Activate AR experiences directly from banner ads, providing a full experiential advertising journey.

If some of the terms used above sounds like jargon, go take a look at ar.rocks Augmented Reality glossary. WebAR is also a technology that helps to make up the Metaverse. You can also learn more about Metaverse technology on our sister-site What is the Metaverse?

How do you track the performance of Metaverse experiences?

The performance and analytics data of 3D environments, and Metaverse experiences in general can be a bit of a 'black box'. One useful piece of software that opens this box up and gives developers full insight into how people are moving around their immersive scenes, and indeed, what they're looking at too, is a 3D analytics software tool. The software is called Metalitix, and you can check out this metaverse analytics tool at metalitix.com. If you're looking for things like Decentraland analytics, for example, then Metalitix can be hooked up with a few simple steps.

Unreal Engine is a 3D and game engine developed by Epic Games. It provides a suite of tools for creating 3D scenes, including things like video games (Fortnite) as well as open worlds. You can learn more about Unreal Engine analytics at metalitix.com.