Amazon Web Services
Marketing & Strategy
Insight
By Lawrence Chichon
15th Oct 2024
Remember back in 2016 when everyone was talking about Pokémon Go?
This was the moment that augmented reality hit its stride for the first time. For the uninitiated, the game allowed players to chase after and capture cute little beasties, superimposing the Pokémon onto the real world.
At its peak that year, Pokémon Go had more than 230m monthly users. As a side note, the game was also allegedly responsible for 145,000 car accidents in the first few months of its release, as fans forgot the highway code in their desperation to catch rare creatures.
This was an inflexion point for a technology that had been hyped as “the next big thing” for decades. Yet some notable failures – RIP Google Glass – have blighted progress in recent years.
Augmented reality – which means the use of technology to overlay extra information onto the physical world – has been around since the late sixties, when a Harvard-educated computer scientist brought out the first headset.
It was soon adopted by the military and used in weapons training. But today there are myriad niche use cases: it’s used to help medical students learn how to undertake complex surgeries, furniture retailers use it to help you visualise a new sofa in your home, and cosmetics brands use AR to sell customers the right make-up shades online.
AR is quietly revolutionising industries, such as manufacturing, where digital instructions are overlaid onto machines and systems through a tablet. There are now around a billion mobile augmented reality (AR) users worldwide, according to estimates.
But this has been evolution, not revolution. Ask most people what AR means to them, and they’ll probably talk about the face filters on Snapchat.
In the events industry, futurists forecast a time where augmented reality would be pervasive, turning conferences and celebrations into multi-sensory events with immersive experiences where attendees can interact with content and peers in a different way.
In truth, the impact has been more subtle. Think Canadian pop group The Weeknd, using AR so that TikTok fans could change the video backdrops at live shows, or, at big PGA golf tournaments, onlookers using AR to replay the shots they just watched IRL.
Barriers to AR adoption persist, such as the cost of implementation, which mean that a fully immersive and impressive experience is only accessible to larger brands. In events, which can last just a few hours, this cost may not always feel justified.
Other questions to consider: Do attendees have the right device or the technical ability to really engage with AR? Can you guarantee the tech will work or does a dodgy internet connection threaten to destroy the whole experience. Can you guarantee user privacy, as AR apps snaffle attendee data?
But the elephant in the room is this: if events are all about human connection, does AR threaten to detract from the social interaction? Can you create a lively atmosphere if people are required to stare into their screens?
The world’s tech titans, from Apple to Microsoft to Meta, are making big bets on AR. Its impact may have been limited to date but as hardware and accessibility improve, this could lead to a breakthrough.
At Marble, we believe that augmented reality, in the right circumstances, can elevate an event from great to unforgettable. Balancing the use of technology with opportunities to network and exchange ideas is crucial.
This is the same balance we must find in our everyday lives, as technology becomes more pervasive. You can’t shy away from progress but you cannot be consumed by it either.
For most of us, augmented reality is, at best, a novelty. A fun way to enhance a moment. At worst, it is a gimmick. How long until it becomes an entrenched and comfortable part of everyday life? We’ve waited more than half a century for AR to come of age, I guess we can wait a little longer.
