Tag: iPad

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.

The real question is whether your AR layer gives the visitor a simple verb and a payoff worth repeating.

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. This works because the physical anchor keeps the choice set small, so the device can turn curiosity into a low-friction action with an immediate outcome.

Extractable takeaway: AR earns its keep when the physical setup stays simple and the device turns it into a repeatable action that produces a visible outcome worth sharing.

What’s really being built here

These are not “apps.” They are engagement machines, meaning they turn a physical setup into an interaction loop with a reward and an easy share path. 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.

Four retail-ready AR mechanics to copy

  • Anchor it physically. 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 tangible payoff. A photo, a score, a lit ornament. Make the outcome tangible.
  • Make sharing a by-product. 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 are the delivery mechanism. The examples explicitly reference iPads and handheld devices 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?

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

How do you keep AR from feeling like a gimmick?

Make the overlay serve a real action and a visible outcome. If the visitor can do something concrete and see a result that is worth showing, the experience stops being novelty and starts being behavior.

Volkswagen #Polowers: Tweet-Powered Race

Volkswagen Polo is one of the most desired cars amongst the youth of Spain. To make a big entry DDB Spain created a Tweet based race that would make VW Polo the most trending topic on Twitter for that day.

A special hashtag #Polowers was created in order to give a name to the VW Polo Followers. Then to generate conversation amongst the Polowers a race was setup where each tweet took the follower to the first position. In this context, a tweet-based race means every tweet with the #Polowers hashtag updates a live leaderboard.

The real question is: how do you turn a low-effort social action into sustained participation during a short launch window?

This is a smart mechanic because it turns public rank into the content people return to influence.

When the Polo stopped at one of the 5 designated stops, the follower in the first position at that time would win a prize, iPad, Denon Ceol music system, Leica D-Lux 5 camera, VW Bike and eventually the grand prize VW Polo itself.

In terms of results, the campaign generated more than 150,000 tweets in 8 hours after launching, at a rate of 5 tweets per second and reached more than 10% of Twitter’s total audience in Spain. It also became the leading Top 10 trending topic and generated a record breaking amount of traffic to Polo’s product section on Volkswagen.es.

Last year Mercedes-Benz had created a tweet based race that had real life cars fueled by tweets. Check out that campaign here.

Why this mechanic works

This is a clean real-time loop. Tweeting is the action. Rank is the feedback. Prizes are the incentive. The “race” gives people a reason to keep going, because every new tweet can change the leader. Because rank shifts are immediate and visible, people keep tweeting to defend or steal the top spot.

Extractable takeaway: If you make the user action measurable and publicly visible in real time, participation grows because people can see their impact instantly.

  • Identity creates belonging. #Polowers turns followers into a named group.
  • Progress is instant. One tweet changes position immediately.
  • Time pressure drives volume. Five stops create multiple “now” moments.
  • Reward cadence sustains momentum. Smaller prizes build toward the grand prize.

In European launch campaigns that need fast, time-boxed social momentum, a live leaderboard loop like this helps convert attention into repeat action inside a single mechanic.

What to take from this if you run social campaigns

  1. Design a loop that explains itself. If the rule fits in one sentence, participation scales.
  2. Make the scoreboard the content. Rankings create a story people want to influence.
  3. Use milestones. Stops and deadlines create peaks instead of a flat timeline.
  4. Measure beyond buzz. Here the campaign also drove traffic to the Polo product section, not just tweets.

A few fast answers before you act

What was Volkswagen #Polowers?

It was a tweet-based race in Spain where participants used the #Polowers hashtag, and tweeting moved them into first position in a live competition for prizes and a chance to win a VW Polo.

How did the prize mechanic work?

When the Polo stopped at one of five designated stops, the follower in first position at that moment won a prize. The grand prize was a VW Polo.

What were the reported results?

More than 150,000 tweets in 8 hours, around 5 tweets per second, reaching more than 10% of Twitter’s total audience in Spain, plus Top 10 trending status and record traffic to Volkswagen.es Polo pages.

Why did the hashtag matter?

#Polowers gave the community a name and made participation visible, searchable, and easy to join.

What is the transferable lesson?

If you turn a simple action into a live competition with clear milestones and meaningful rewards, social participation can compound quickly.

Lexus ES: Print Ad That Comes Alive on iPad

You are flipping through Sports Illustrated and a Lexus ES print ad starts behaving like a screen. The car appears to change color, its headlights flare on, the interior reveals itself, and the whole moment syncs to music.

On a number of occasions I have featured examples of brands creating interactive print ads. By “interactive print ad”, I mean a print page that becomes dynamic when paired with a tablet, with the page acting as the interface and the screen supplying light and motion. Here, the new Lexus 2013 ES is seen changing colors, turning on its headlights and exposing its interiors while music plays in this interactive print ad for the Oct. 15 Sports Illustrated issue.

Paper as a “display”

The trick is not that the magazine suddenly has electronics inside it. The page becomes a physical overlay, and the motion comes from a second screen underneath it. Place the ad over an iPad while the matching Lexus ES video plays, and the printed ink acts like a mask that makes the animation feel like it is happening on the paper itself.

An interactive print ad is a print execution that becomes dynamic when paired with a second screen, using the page as the interface and the tablet as the light and motion source.

In premium automotive marketing and magazine environments, this approach keeps the experience on the page while still delivering the “wow” of moving imagery.

Why this beats the usual print-to-digital handoff

Most interactive print ideas send you away from the page via QR codes, short links, or app installs. This one does the opposite. It pulls the digital layer into the print moment, so the reward arrives immediately and visually, without asking the viewer to leave the ad context.

Extractable takeaway: When a medium is already in someone’s hands, bring the digital layer into that moment instead of routing people elsewhere.

What Lexus is buying with this execution

This is not primarily a spec demo. It is a perception demo. The real question is whether the format makes “advanced technology elevated by style” feel true before the viewer even reads the copy. The ES positioning is “advanced technology elevated by style”, and the format reinforces that promise by making a traditionally static medium feel newly technical. The ad itself becomes proof of the claim.

Stealable moves for interactive print

  • Keep the interaction on the page. If you can deliver the payoff in the same frame, attention holds.
  • Use a familiar object as the interface. A magazine page is intuitive. No learning curve.
  • Design one signature reveal. Headlights, interior, color shift. Pick the one moment people will retell.
  • Make it work in low light. If the illusion depends on contrast, design the experience so it still reads in real life.

A few fast answers before you act

How does this “interactive print ad” actually work?

The print page is placed over an iPad while a synced video plays underneath. The page acts as a mask, so the animation appears to live on the paper.

Is the interactivity coming from electronics inside the magazine?

No. The motion, light, and sound come from the tablet. The magazine page provides the physical overlay and the illusion of print moving.

Why is this more engaging than a QR code in a print ad?

The payoff is immediate and stays on the page. QR flows add steps and send the viewer away, which increases drop-off.

What is the brand advantage of doing it this way?

The medium becomes the message. The execution demonstrates “technology plus design” through the experience itself, not just through copy.

What is the key execution risk?

If alignment, lighting, or setup friction is too high, the illusion breaks and the viewer quits before the reveal lands.