Tag: augmented reality

Burger King Burn that Ad

In Brazil, Burger King and ad agency David SP use augmented reality to “burn” competitors’ ads through consumers’ mobile phones. The reward is simple and immediate. Participate, and you earn a free Whopper.

Burger King expects to give away 500,000 Whoppers through the promotion, pushing more people to use Burger King Express, the service that lets customers pre-order food for pickup.

How “Burn that Ad” works

The mechanic turns rival advertising into a trigger. Here, the mechanic is one simple action that immediately returns a coupon reward. You point your phone at a competitor’s ad, the experience “burns” it in AR, and the payoff is a Whopper coupon. It is a direct, product-first incentive tied to a single action.

In quick-service restaurants, where choice is made in seconds, immediate incentives can shift behaviour faster than storytelling.

Why the reward is the strategy

This is not a brand-film play. It is a behavioural exchange. The AR effect is decoration. The engine is the immediate product reward tied to one action. The real question is whether your mechanic creates an immediate, low-friction exchange that makes a new behaviour worth trying. Because the reward is immediate and tied to one action, the AR burn becomes a conversion trigger rather than a gimmick. The customer does something specific in the moment, and Burger King pays them back with something they value immediately. That makes participation scalable beyond the novelty of AR.

Extractable takeaway: If you want people to adopt a new operational path, design a one-step exchange where the reward is immediate, tangible, and triggered by a single action.

The operational goal: Burger King Express

The giveaway is not only about footfall. It is designed to drive adoption of pre-order pickup via Burger King Express. The campaign builds a reason to try the service, not just the product.

What to steal

  • Make competitors the trigger: Turn a competitor’s presence into your acquisition trigger, without relying on complicated steps.
  • Keep it low-friction: Keep the action simple and the reward tangible.
  • Scale an operational behaviour: Link the incentive to an operational behaviour you want to scale, such as pickup pre-order adoption.

A few fast answers before you act

What is “Burn that Ad”?

A Burger King Brazil promotion that uses augmented reality to “burn” competitors’ ads on mobile phones and reward participants with a free Whopper.

What is the incentive?

A free Whopper, delivered via the promotion’s reward mechanic.

How many Whoppers does Burger King plan to give away?

500,000.

What is Burger King Express?

A Burger King service that lets customers pre-order food for pickup.

What business behaviour does it push beyond the giveaway?

Using Burger King Express to pre-order food for pickup.

Microsoft HoloLens: Elevator Maintenance

Augmented reality leaves the demo room

Microsoft HoloLens is not only about futuristic consumer experiences. Its real power emerges in enterprise environments.

A strong example is ThyssenKrupp, which uses HoloLens to redefine how elevator maintenance is performed in the field.

Instead of relying on manuals, phone calls, or trial and error, technicians receive contextual, real-time information directly in their line of sight.

How HoloLens changes elevator servicing

With HoloLens, elevator technicians see what they need while keeping their hands free.

Technical documentation, schematics, and checklists appear as holograms overlaid onto the physical elevator system.

Remote experts can see exactly what the technician sees and guide them step by step.

This turns maintenance into a guided, collaborative process rather than an isolated task.

In industrial field service teams, the constraint is getting expert judgement to the point of work fast enough to prevent rework and downtime.

Why this matters for industrial operations

The impact goes beyond convenience. Because guidance is delivered in-context and hands-free, technicians can complete complex steps with fewer avoidable mistakes.

Extractable takeaway: When you embed expert guidance into the job itself, you turn specialist knowledge into a repeatable operating system for the frontline.

The real question is whether you can make frontline expertise repeatable inside the workflow, not whether you can ship an AR pilot.

Enterprise AR is worth doing when it removes friction from real maintenance workflows, not when it adds another screen.

  • Reduced downtime
  • Shorter training cycles
  • Improved first-time fix rates

Most importantly, expertise becomes scalable.

Knowledge is no longer locked in the heads of a few specialists. It becomes part of the workflow.

A glimpse of the future of work

This use case shows what augmented reality does best.

It does not replace workers. It augments them.

Complex tasks become easier. Errors decrease. Confidence increases. Work becomes safer and more efficient.

This is where mixed reality stops being a novelty and starts being infrastructure. By mixed reality here, I mean digital guidance and remote expertise anchored onto the physical job, not a virtual-world detour.

What to copy from this AR service pattern

  • Instrument the moment of work. Put the next step where the technician is looking, not in a manual that forces context switching.
  • Make escalation visual. Let remote experts share the same view so guidance is specific and actionable.
  • Scale expertise as workflow. Capture checks, sequences, and decision points so outcomes do not depend on a few specialists.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the Microsoft HoloLens elevator maintenance use case?

ThyssenKrupp uses Microsoft HoloLens so field technicians can see schematics, checklists, and contextual guidance overlaid onto the elevator system while working hands-free.

How does HoloLens change the maintenance workflow?

It puts documentation and step-by-step instructions into the technician’s line of sight, and enables remote experts to see what the technician sees so they can guide the job in real time.

Is this only relevant for elevators?

No. The same pattern applies to any field service or industrial maintenance scenario where hands-free guidance, fast troubleshooting, and expert escalation reduce downtime and errors.

What is the measurable value driver in enterprise AR like this?

Reduced downtime, faster training, and higher first-time fix rates. The key is that expertise becomes repeatable and scalable inside the workflow instead of remaining locked in a few specialists.

Where does this pattern break down?

It breaks down when the underlying documentation is outdated, connectivity is unreliable, or remote support is not operationalized. The hardware alone does not change outcomes.

TV Viewing: Super Bowl Meets HoloLens

TV viewing is overdue for a real change

The TV viewing experience does not change drastically for years. Bigger screens, better resolution, smarter interfaces. But the core behavior stays familiar.

That is why sophisticated headsets like Microsoft HoloLens feel like a genuine breakpoint.

They do not just improve the screen. They change the environment around it.

Microsoft and the NFL re-imagine the Super Bowl

In a recently released video, Microsoft and the NFL re-imagine how a Super Bowl game could be watched with multiple friends and family members.

The scenario pushes beyond passive viewing. It turns the living room into an interactive layer, where the game experience becomes more immersive, more social, and more spatial.

By spatial, I mean the content is anchored to the room, not confined to the TV frame.

This is the kind of concept that makes the future of TV feel tangible.

In mass-market entertainment, the constraint is not what immersive concepts can show, but when consumer hardware becomes affordable, comfortable, and mainstream.

Why this lands for co-viewing

TV should prioritize co-viewing, meaning multiple people watching and reacting together in the same room, because a shared, spatial layer creates viewer control that a single rectangle cannot. The real question is whether you are designing for shared viewer control in the room, or just adding data overlays to a screen.

Extractable takeaway: When you move sports content into the room, design the experience around shared reference points, lightweight interaction, and conversation pacing, not around more screen real estate.

Immersive viewing is real. Consumer timing is not

The video shows how immersive TV watching can get. But Microsoft is not fast-tracking HoloLens for consumer consumption.

For now, only developers can order HoloLens, shipping this year.

No one knows when consumers get access, or when scenarios like this become a reality.

That uncertainty is part of the story. The vision is clear. The rollout timeline is not.

Steal these design cues for living-room sports

  • Design for the room. Treat the TV as one surface among many, then anchor the key moments and data where people naturally look and point.
  • Make co-viewing explicit. Support multiple viewers and viewpoints, so participation feels shared instead of “one person driving.”
  • Prototype for constraints. Assume headsets stay niche for a while, and test what still works when only one person has the device.

A few fast answers before you act

Is this still “TV” or something else?

It starts as TV content, but behaves more like a shared, spatial experience than a single screen.

What is the core shift headsets enable?

They move content off the rectangle and into the room, so viewing becomes environmental and interactive.

What is the biggest constraint right now?

Availability and consumer readiness. Until mainstream hardware adoption happens, this remains concept-led.

What should experience designers take from this?

Design for co-viewing and spatial context. Multiple people, multiple viewpoints, and shared interaction become first-class requirements.

What should you prototype first?

Prototype the simplest “shared moments” layer, so two to four people can compare and discuss the same play without anyone leaving the game flow.