Mobile 29 | SunMatrix Ramble

AR in 2013: Three Retail-Ready Examples

Augmented Reality in 2013: when the real world becomes the interface

With smartphones and tablets becoming part of our everyday life, we also see more augmented reality apps mixing the virtual and the real world in 2013. Here are some examples from ARworks that recently caught my eye.

Audi Singapore Showroom app

For the opening of their biggest showroom in South-East Asia, Audi created AR experiences that allowed visitors to fly around the showroom building without actually boarding a plane, or drive the Audi R18 race car around Singapore at full speed without the risk of getting a ticket. What’s more, they even allowed visitors to personalize their individual license plates and then take photos with the car.

Dakar race in a shopping mall

A real Dakar desert racecourse was built for the new Opel Mokka on a 4mtrs long table that was placed in a shopping mall. Visitors could use the provided iPads to race against time and each other. The results were then shared on Facebook, and the weekly and overall winners received various prizes.

Christmas Ornament Sling

Deutsche Telekom, for their Christmas promotion, developed an iPad app where visitors could throw virtual Christmas ornaments containing their personal message onto a huge Christmas tree erected in a mall. A successful hit to one of the real ornaments on the tree lit it up through an integrated server application.

The pattern across all three: AR turns “watching” into doing

None of these examples treat AR as a gimmick. Each one uses the device as a bridge between curiosity and action. You explore a building. You race a course. You aim a message at a real tree. The screen stops being a place to consume. It becomes a tool to participate.

In retail and shopper environments, augmented reality works best when it turns a physical setup into a simple, repeatable action loop for the visitor.

Why retail is the natural habitat for AR

Retail already has the ingredients. Footfall, dwell time, and physical objects that can anchor the experience. AR simply adds a layer of viewer control. The visitor decides where to look, what to try, and what to share.

What’s really being built here

These are not “apps.” They are engagement machines. Each one creates a clear reason to interact, a clear reward for completing the action, and a clear path to share or repeat. That is how you turn novelty into behavior.

What to steal for your next AR build

Anchor the experience to a physical object people can gather around. A showroom, a tabletop course, a tree.
Give the visitor a simple verb. Fly, drive, race, sling. Actions beat features.
Design a payoff. A photo, a score, a lit ornament. Make the outcome tangible.
Make sharing a natural by-product of the activity, not a forced button at the end.

A few fast answers before you act

What makes these 2013 AR examples feel “ready” for real audiences?

They are built around clear actions and clear rewards. The device is used to do something in the physical environment, not just view an overlay.

Which devices are central to these activations?

Tablets and phones. The examples explicitly reference iPads and handheld devices as the delivery mechanism for the AR interaction.

What role does sharing play in these concepts?

Sharing is tied to the activity. Photos with the car, results shared on Facebook, and personal messages sent as virtual ornaments.

What is the common mechanic across the three examples?

Using the camera-enabled device as a controller that links a real-world setup to a virtual experience, giving the viewer control over exploration and interaction.

Track My Macca’s: Supply Chain Transparency

McDonald’s in Australia decided to use technology to tackle one of its biggest problems, the disbelief that its ingredients are fresh, locally sourced and of decent quality. So with image recognition, GPS, augmented reality and some serious integration with its supply chain, they put together a full story behind every ingredient people came across while buying food at McDonald’s.

The real challenge: trust, not awareness

This is not a campaign built to shout louder. It is built to answer the skeptical question that sits in the customer’s head at the moment of choice: “Is this actually fresh, and where did it come from”.

Instead of responding with claims, it responds with traceable context. Ingredient by ingredient.

Why the tech stack matters only if it is integrated

Image recognition, GPS, and augmented reality are the attention layer. The credibility layer is the supply chain integration. Without that, the experience would be a glossy story. With it, the experience becomes proof.

Image recognition. Identify what the customer is looking at or buying.
GPS. Connect the experience to location and local sourcing claims.
Augmented reality. Make information feel immediate and tangible in the buying moment.
Supply chain integration. Ensure the “story” maps to real sourcing and logistics data.

What makes this a strong model for brand transparency

Transparency only works when it is easy. People will not dig through PDFs or corporate sustainability pages while they are ordering lunch.

This approach brings the information to the moment and to the object. It reduces friction and increases believability.

What to take from this if you run CX, MarTech, or operations

Start with the objection. The customer’s doubt defines the experience.
Proof beats promise. If you want trust, show traceability, not slogans.
Integrate the system of record. Experiences that depend on trust must connect to operational data.
Design for the moment of choice. The best transparency is delivered exactly when people need it.

A few fast answers before you act

What is “Track My Macca’s”?

It is a McDonald’s Australia initiative that uses mobile technology to show a story behind ingredients, aiming to build trust in freshness, local sourcing, and quality.

Which technologies were used?

Image recognition, GPS, augmented reality, and strong integration with McDonald’s supply chain to connect the experience to real sourcing and logistics.

Why is supply chain integration the critical piece?

Because the experience depends on credibility. Without operational data behind it, the story would feel like marketing. With it, it can function as proof.

What customer problem does this solve?

It addresses disbelief about ingredient freshness and quality by making provenance and context visible at the point of purchase.

What is the transferable lesson for other brands?

If trust is your barrier, design transparency into the customer journey and connect it to your systems of record, so the experience can stand up to scrutiny.

Marie Claire: Print Pages You Can Tap to Buy

Enabling readers to buy directly from magazines or newspapers is slowly going to become the industry standard, as revenues from print continue to slip.

Last year Ikea re-imagined their catalog via a special visual recognition app that brought its pages and offerings within to life. Now Marie Claire has taken it one step further by letting their readers use the Netpage app to interact with its printed pages, clip, save, share, watch and buy.

The Netpage app is described as using a combination of image recognition, augmented reality and digital twin technology. Hence no special codes, watermarks or special printing processes are required. In this context, “digital twin” is used to describe a digital counterpart of each page that can be recognized and linked to interactive layers.

Shoppable print, without QR code clutter

Shoppable print is the fusion of editorial content and commerce, where a reader can move from “I want that” to checkout directly from the page. The key difference here is interaction that is designed to feel native to reading. Not bolted on as a separate scanning ritual.

Why this matters for magazines and brands

Once print becomes tappable, the page stops being an endpoint. It becomes a trigger for a whole set of actions, saving for later, sharing with friends, watching richer product context, and buying immediately.

That shift reframes the business model. The magazine is no longer only monetized by ads and subscriptions. It can also participate in the transaction path.

What to steal if you publish or sell through content

Design interaction as a reading behavior, quick actions that fit the moment, not a separate “tech demo.”
Reduce visual noise, if recognition can be invisible, the page stays premium.
Offer multiple intent paths, not everyone wants to buy now, but they might save, share, or watch.
Make the jump from inspiration to action short, the fewer steps, the more commerce you unlock.

The future is all about content being fused with commerce so that it’s a quick step from reading about an item to buying it. So get ready!

A few fast answers before you act

What does “interactive print” mean here?

It means a printed page can be recognized by a phone app and instantly connected to digital actions like clipping, saving, sharing, watching content, and buying.

How is this different from QR codes?

The interaction is designed to be code-free on the page. The recognition layer is meant to feel invisible, so the magazine layout stays clean.

What is the core value for readers?

Convenience. Readers can act on interest immediately, whether that means saving an item, sharing it, or purchasing it, without leaving the content context.

What is the core value for publishers?

A measurable engagement layer and a commerce path. Pages can generate trackable actions and potentially incremental revenue beyond print ads.

What is the biggest adoption risk?

Habit change. If the scanning flow feels slow or unclear, people will not repeat it. The first experience must be fast, obvious, and rewarding.