Tag: retail experience

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.

Red Stripe Musical Extravaganza

Red Stripe, a Jamaican lager brand, transforms an ordinary-looking East London corner shop into a singing, dancing musical extravaganza. Products across the shop turn into instruments that burst into a melody when a customer selects a Red Stripe. Noodle pots become maracas. Bottles turn into trumpets. Cans become xylophones.

To capture the surprise, 10 hidden cameras record customer reactions as the shop “comes alive.”

The shop becomes the media

This is not a poster on a wall. It is the environment itself performing. The moment of selection triggers the show. The shelf becomes the stage.

That shift matters because it makes the brand moment inseparable from the act of buying. It is shopper marketing that feels like entertainment, not persuasion.

The trigger is the product choice

The smartest part is the mechanic. Nothing happens until the customer chooses the product. That makes the experience feel personalised, even though it is engineered.

It also makes the story instantly explainable. “When you pick up a Red Stripe, the shop turns into a band.”

Why hidden cameras make the idea travel

The in-store performance is powerful, but it is local. The video is what scales it. Real reactions signal authenticity, and the format becomes shareable proof that the stunt actually happens.

What to steal

  • Make the point-of-sale moment the trigger, not the end of the journey.
  • Convert ordinary objects into a surprising behaviour, so the setting becomes memorable.
  • Capture genuine reactions, then let the video do the distribution work.

A few fast answers before you act

What happens in the Red Stripe Musical Extravaganza?

An East London corner shop turns into a musical performance. Shop items become instruments that play when a customer selects a Red Stripe.

What turns into instruments?

Noodle pots become maracas. Bottles become trumpets. Cans become xylophones.

How is it captured?

Ten hidden cameras record customer reactions.

What is the core mechanic that makes it work?

The product selection triggers the performance, so the “brand moment” happens at the exact point of purchase.

Ford C-Max Augmented Reality

A shopper walks past a JCDecaux Innovate mall “six-sheet” screen and stops. Instead of watching a looped video, they raise their hands and the Ford Grand C-MAX responds. They spin the car 360 degrees, open the doors, fold the seats flat, and flip through feature demos like Active Park Assist. No printed marker. No “scan this” prompt. Just gesture and immediate feedback.

What makes this outdoor AR execution different

This is where augmented reality in advertising moves from a cool, branded desktop experience to a marker-less, educational interaction in public space. The campaign, created by Ogilvy & Mather with London production partner Grand Visual, runs on JCDecaux Innovate’s mall digital screens in UK shopping centres and invites passers-by to explore the product, not just admire it.

The interaction model, in plain terms

Instead of asking people to download an app or scan a code, the screen behaves like a “walk-up showroom.”

  • Hands up. The interface recognises the user and their gestures.
  • Virtual buttons. On-screen controls let people change colour, open doors, fold seats, rotate the car, and trigger feature demos.
  • Learning by doing. The experience is less about spectacle and more about understanding what the 7-seat Grand C-MAX offers in a few seconds.

How the marker-less AR works here

The technical leap is the move away from printed markers or symbols as the anchor for interaction. The interface is based on natural movement and hand gestures, so any passer-by can start immediately without instructions.

Under the hood, a Panasonic D-Imager camera measures real-time spatial depth, and Inition’s augmented reality software merges the live footage with a 3D, photo-real model of the Grand C-MAX on screen.

In retail and out-of-home environments, interactive screens win when they eliminate setup friction and teach the product in seconds.

Why this matters for outdoor digital

If you care about outdoor and retail-media screens as more than “digital posters,” this is a strong pattern:

  • Lower friction beats novelty. The magic is not AR itself. The magic is that the user does not need to learn anything first.
  • Gesture makes the screen feel “alive.” The moment the passer-by sees the car respond, the display stops being media and becomes a product interface.
  • Education scales in public space. Showing how seats fold, how doors open, or what a feature demo looks like is hard to compress into a static ad. Interaction solves that.

Practical takeaways if you want to build something like this

  • Design for instant comprehension. Assume 3 seconds of attention before you earn more. Lead with one obvious gesture and one obvious payoff.
  • Keep the control set small. Colour, rotate, open, fold. A few high-value actions beat a deep menu.
  • Treat it like product UX, not campaign UX. The success metric is “did I understand the car better,” not “did I watch longer.”
  • Instrument it. Track starts, completions, feature selections, and drop-offs. Outdoor can behave like a funnel if you design it that way.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the core innovation here?

Marker-less, gesture-driven AR on mall digital screens that lets passers-by explore product features without scanning a code or using a printed marker.

What does the user actually do?

They raise their hands to start, then use on-screen controls to change colour, open doors, fold seats, rotate the car, and trigger feature demos like Active Park Assist.

What technology enables it?

A depth-imaging camera measures real-time spatial depth, and AR software merges live footage with a 3D model of the vehicle.

Why does “marker-less” matter in public spaces?

Because it removes setup friction. Anyone walking by can immediately interact through natural movement and gestures.