VR/AR
The Future of Qual
In 2022 the ARF Cultural Effectiveness Council conducted 18 in-depth interviews (IDIs) with senior research executives via Teams and Zoom to understand how the ‘Future of Qual’ would evolve with rapidly changing qualitative methods and the urgency across industries to understand cultural shifts. Council members Chloe Stromberg of LinkedIn and Anne Kaplan of Paramount, who worked on this project, presented what the Council learned from these interviews. Their presentation was followed by a panel discussion with a mix of Council members (Tony D’Andrea of General Mills and Tristan Marra of GLAAD) and culture-savvy researchers outside the Council (Danie Hemsley of Cassandra and Kendra Clarke, former Senior Director, Head of Experience Research and Design, Core Technologies at Twitter), led by Council Co-Chair Janelle James of Ipsos. The presentation and discussion focused on how qualitative research is evolving, how it can overcome its challenges —particularly those related to diversity and cultural understanding—and best practices for conducting qual research, moving forward.
Augmented Reality, Neuroscience & Measuring Audience Engagement
This study used neuroscience-based methods to explore if AR experiences—content as well as ads —provide more immersive engagement than other media.
- Targets & Segments
- Article
The Future of Qual
In 2022 the ARF Cultural Effectiveness Council conducted 18 in-depth interviews (IDIs) with senior research executives via Teams and Zoom to understand how the 'Future of Qual' would evolve with rapidly changing qualitative methods and the urgency across industries to understand cultural shifts. Council members Chloe Stromberg of LinkedIn and Anne Kaplan of Paramount, who worked on this project, presented what the Council learned from these interviews. Their presentation was followed by a panel discussion with a mix of Council members (Tony D’Andrea of General Mills and Tristan Marra of GLAAD) and culture-savvy researchers outside the Council (Danie Hemsley of Cassandra and Kendra Clarke, former Senior Director, Head of Experience Research and Design, Core Technologies at Twitter), led by Council Co-Chair Janelle James of Ipsos. The presentation and discussion focused on how qualitative research is evolving, how it can overcome its challenges —particularly those related to diversity and cultural understanding—and best practices for conducting qual research, moving forward.
Member Only AccessVirtual Reality: Is It Real This Time?
With the development of emerging technologies like Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) in recent years, changes to the advertising and marketing landscapes have followed. Experts from Meta, Snap, Inc. and Influencer joined the Social Council on July 27 to demonstrate what this exciting new medium looks like and expound on what it can do for brands.
How Retailers are Connecting the Metaverse to the Real World and Revenue
AJ Dalal of Publicis Sapient defined the metaverse and outlined some pioneering moves certain brands have taken within it. He also shared advice on how to be successful in this burgeoning new phase of the internet. The interoperability of web 3.0 allows consumers to take their avatar and NFTs across platforms, which unlocks highly personalized and unique experiences and the ability to execute instant settlement in real time. To ensure success, a brand should remember its target market, which in this space is 16- to 25-year-olds, concentrate on what value their experience brings to the consumer, be authentic and specific and consider an evolving roadmap, being transparent with users that the experience rests on new technology and might evolve and improve over time.
The Future of Shopping: Where, How and Why People Will Buy Things
Elizabeth Harris and Melvin Melendez of Arc Worldwide covered how people are going to buy things in the future. The process will become seamlessly interwoven into experiences driven by technologies such as AI, VR and electric vehicles. They started with a quote from their parent company Publicis Groupe’s founder, Rishad Tobaccowala, “The future does not fit into the containers of the past.” The presenters then gave a number of examples of recent and future approaches which are highly personalized, immersive experiences that engage and entertain while solving problems.
The Augmented Reality Playbook
The capabilities of AR ads, their impact on branding metrics, as well as the role of AR ads in the consumer purchase journey, were presented by Aarti Bhaskaran of Snap and Prayushi Amin of Magna Global.
- Past Event Highlights
- Article
The Augmented Reality Playbook
Aarti Bhaskaran – Ad Research and Insights, Global Lead, Snap Inc.
Brian Hughes – EVP, Managing Director, Audience Intelligence & Strategy, Magna Global
The capabilities of AR ads, their impact on branding metrics, as well as the role of AR ads in the consumer purchase journey, were presented by Aarti Bhaskaran of Snap and Brian Hughes of Magna Global. AR should be an integral part of the marketing mix. The benefits of AR ads include increasing brand metrics, such as unaided brand awareness, aided ad recall and purchase intent. Additionally, AR’s personalized experiences help build deeper brand connections with consumers while providing utility and excitement. These conclusions were reached as a result of AR ad testing. The test methodology included a representative mobile panel, randomization and exposure to one of three Snapchat AR ads or to a 15-second pre-roll control ad. The post-exposure survey measured the impact of AR ads on branding metrics. Testing was done in U.S., Canada, France, Australia and Saudi Arabia with five brands across six industries.Key Takeaways
- Marketers should view AR ads as brand amplifiers rather than add-ons and use these ads strategically.
- AR ads perform as well as pre-rolls to achieve brand objectives. Additionally, consumers considered AR ads more enjoyable, as well as providing more utility and information than pre-rolls.
- AR ads play different roles in each stage of the purchase journey and marketers should match the appropriate AR lens with the brand goal and audience target at each stage.
- Sequencing the exposures of AR ads can help amplify their impact. Starting the sequence with a video ad followed by the AR ad resulted in an amplified impact on brand metrics. Alternatively, placing the AR ad in between two video ads showcased the brand as cheerful and boosted search intent.
The ARF Immersive Advertising Study
What attitudes do advertisers currently have about virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and the metaverse? This is an important question, since according to one report by Snap, nearly 75% of the world’s population (and almost all of those using social communications apps right now) are expected to be frequent VR users. A new ARF study, using data from The Advertiser Perceptions Ad Pros proprietary community, gives us a much fuller understanding of advertisers’ attitudes and behaviors toward these nascent technologies.
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