5 augmented reality Christmas ideas for your AR campaign
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Holidays are great opportunities to create marketing and advertising campaigns that are guaranteed to drive traffic, captures and shares. There is no more profitable time to launch a campaign like this than Christmas.
Christmas is a period when people turn to social media to share in the festive spirit or pass the long holiday hours. At the same time, people are searching for Christmas gift ideas and inspiration.
If you’re hoping to cash in this Christmas season, the sooner you can position yourself in front of your target audience, the better. And guess what? An augmented reality Christmas effect is your best friend when it comes to brand engagement and word-of-mouth sharing. All you need to do is create a fun AR effect and your followers or target advertising audience will be sure to share it. That’s the beauty of AR, it is so inherently cool that you don’t even need to try and convince anyone to engage with it.
If you’d love to get on the augmented reality Christmas effect bandwagon but are stuck for ideas, here we compiled a few examples of great augmented reality Christmas campaigns from the real world.
1. Coca-Cola’s augmented polar bears
This year, Coca-Cola are bringing their classic holiday packaging to life through augmented reality. The famous polar bears and Santa Claus can now become augmented using the Coca-Cola app for iOS and Android.
All users need to do is scan their holiday-themed cans or bottle to see the polar bears’ winter wonderland brought to life. Truly a magical experience from the company rumoured to have popularised Santa’s famous red suit.
2. Starbucks’ famous Christmas cups
Starbucks has gone big with AR this holiday season by launch its first ever Instagram filter: Holiyay, available on their Instagram profile.
The filter is an image tracker that allows the user to “scan” their Starbucks holiday cup and magically augment it. The effect works on several Starbucks cups, taking advantage of their hugely successful Christmas cup branding.
Christmas building of Starbucks with Christmas ornaments, Christmas messaging popping up, unlock an experience of falling snow, or engage in an interactive Christmas colour-themed game of bursting bubbles.
3. John Lewis’ beloved Christmas ad, augmented
Christmas wouldn’t be complete without the advert that every year John Lewis blesses us with, threatening our tear ducts and sending this poor Twitter user on a wild goose chase as the opinionated tweets flood in.
This holiday season John Lewis are taking it a step further by creating a Christmas Snapchat effect that turns users into the main character from their Christmas advert: Excitable Edgar.
The advert tells the – literally – heartwarming story of a dragon who keeps accidentally ruining Christmas by getting overexcited and burning snowmen, Christmas wreaths and even an entire Christmas tree down. However, he is finally redeemed on Christmas day by effectively igniting a Christmas pudding for everybody to share.
Try the Snapchat lens here.
4. His Dark Materials’ wintery armoured bear
Although not strictly a Christmas Snapchat effect, this AR experience we produced for the new BBC show His Dark Materials turns you into Iorek, a great armoured bear in the snowy north of the universe the series is set in.
The lens also features the northern lights in the background, a fixture of winter season in the North. It’s a perfect way to get in the mood for some great Holiday season TV.
5. Target’s “will it fit?” augmented reality Christmas tree effect
Target have gone practical with their Christmas-themed AR effect this year, which is designed to help customers buy the perfect Christmas tree. With this effect, they can expect to get great results if what they intend is to drive sales of their vast collection of Christmas trees.
The effect appears on Target’s mobile app for iOS and Android, where an AR icon can be tapped to activate the AR experience, allowing users to visualise the Christmas tree in their own living room.
Smart, huh?
Final words
The holiday season is a perfect occasion to get some buzz from creative campaigns, at a time of year when people are particularly keen to get in the holiday spirit.
If you’d like to create your own Christmas-themed AR effect but don’t know where to begin, feel free to contact us and we’ll be happy to help!
