When 3-D digital world meets our 3-D real world: It’s about feelings & emotions afterall

Mar 6, 2010 | Sandhya Srinivasan | WOW Marketing

Excited with an idea that’s campaignable, advertising folks have often expounded 360° or consumer surround as the edge, to cut through the clutter. By looking at moments in the consumers life that is yet unexploited, most brands have tried to locate meaningful sweet spots. To amplify the surround, brands have often been spurred to use multi media, retail blitzkrieg etc, which also spreads media monies thin. But today there is a new dimension that doesn’t ask for your effort, as the format itself creates ‘wholesome experiences’ making it memorable: 3-D

3-D is not new to us. Our real world has been 3-D is every way; be it visual, tactile or auditory. The tsunami was a case in point. Nothing as spectacular and dramatic has been seen live, though with cataclysmic implications. In the entertainment world in India many years ago, an attempt at 3-D was made with a children’s film called Chota Chetan. And today with gargantuan budgets, we have come a long way in appreciating the truly amazing Avatar.  The buzz is that 3-D TVs are well on their way to bringing that experience home. Reports say that close to 40 million units of 3-D TVs will be sold by 2010. Wow! Imagine what that would do to our home theater experience.

Augmented reality has given this a jump-start by making characters lifelike even in the privacy of our room.  And brands like Disney and Adidas have encashed on it.

Creating experiences, has taken a whole new meaning and many brands have found a highly expressive tool to tell their brand story.

Disney never ceases to amaze

Adidas Originals AR Game Pack Teaser Film

Beer brand Stella Artois launched an augmented reality bar guide application a few months back. Le Bar Guide is an iPhone application that lets thirsty souls search for bars nearby via zip code, country or rating. When the iPhone is held vertically, Le Bar Guide shows profiles of bars in the consumer’s immediate vicinity. The profiles are overlaid on the street view from their location. When the phone is held with the camera pointing at the ground, the application shows arrows pointing the direction of nearby bars.

Stella Artois Le Bar Guide

So now imagine this on your mobile phone. A nearby restaurant could ping you the most scrumptious meal in a visually appetizing way, at precisely 1.00 PM in the afternoon. If it looks that good it must taste just as well, right? Can I smell the hunger pangs already? What a treat to the senses! Or then skype does not stay just a great see & speak medium, but it got your loved ones to come alive 3-D style, like they were right there. Physically present.

Finally, brand building won’t be just about selling benefits & product windows, but about enticing, playing with, pampering its prospects. It will perform like in a theater. It will take you into the concert, a Formula1 race, a chase by a leopard…and make you experience it live. The beauty of this technology is that it will bring people back to where the action really is.

Welcome back to the real world.