Volkswagen recently launched a new marketing campaign which was completely centered around augmented reality. The automaker has shown remarkable prowess with online and interactive technologies in the past, and their latest venture into the realm of augmented reality only proves their mastery of the medium. This past July, the automaker introduced their AR advertisements to consumers through several magazines. The advertisement could be removed from the magazine and used to launch an augmented reality program that would allow users to participate in a virtual race.
Participants were put inside one of Volkswagen’s vehicles to compete in the interactive game. Participants competed against one another in order to win a number of prizes. One of the most coveted prizes was a test drive in Volkswagen’s latest, high performance vehicle. According to the automaker, more than 50,000 consumers participated in the game, 7% of which won the test drive.
Augmented reality is beginning to see more use in marketing, but its applications have been somewhat limited as the boundaries of the technology remain untested. While not the first company to make use of the technology to produce an interactive gaming experience for consumers, Volkswagen has done much to refine the process. The success of the campaign may inspire the company to pursue similar avenues of consumer interaction in the future, especially as more of their competitors are adopting interactive technologies for their own marketing efforts.
