Fully-custom augmented reality experiences are coming to Instagram (Summer 2019)
For the last few years, Facebook has been quietly investing millions of dollars into their AR platform. Up until now, bringing branded AR experiences to smartphones was expensive and required users to download a standalone app.
Savage Digital is always on the lookout for trends in creative digital media. We see low friction AR experiences arriving on Instagram/Facebook as a total game changer.
Towards the end of 2018, brands who were in Instagram’s closed beta program started rolling out lots of custom Instagram experiences.
But this summer, anyone, anywhere will be able to launch these Instagram AR experiences.
Engadget: Facebook is winning the augmented reality war
Pepsi rolling out QR codes on all its bottles to unlock Instagram AR filters.
Four reasons AR on Instagram is a big deal
1) Low friction: Most users will have either Facebook or Instagram installed on their smartphone. They won’t need to download a new native app.
2) Sky-is-the-limit creative capabilites: Instagram filters will be going from puppy ears to full-fledged AR experiences. We share a few examples below.
3) Engagement and virality: Agencies and brands can dream up creative ideas and expect hundreds of thousands of high-engagement impressions. We’ve only seen sky-high metrics for the AR experiences we’ve launched on Facebook and Instagram so far.
4) Ease of deployment: Launching creative experiences with Facebook’s authoring tool is straightforward. We’ve been able to build and deploy to millions of users with two-week development timelines.
Examples
Apparel Brands
A user visits a sunglasses brand on Instagram. They tap the “Try it On” story. They’re now cycling through an entire collection of sunglasses.
Furniture / Toys / Decorations
With a single tap from an Instagram brand page or a promoted Facebook post: instantly browse items of furniture to see what they look like in your house (Like the IKEA AR app)
Video Games
Try on the latest loot box items, or watch characters battle it out on your coffee table.
Game companies already have the 3D assets which would make this seem like a no-brainer.
Simple mini games are also a possibility: Play “Flappy Bird” on Instagram by blinking your eyes to flap. Because Instagram on AR is new and novel, this experience achieved 1 billion views in under 2 weeks.
Film & Entertainment
Facebook AR was rolled out as a testing ground of the platform before it gets to deployed to Instagram. There are already plenty examples of movie studios creating AR filters for Facebook.
Launch with QR
Scan a QR code on posters, retail items or consumer packaged goods to launch overlays that provide more info about the product, play videos, etc. Any kind of experience. Again, the key here is that there are no apps to download because most people will already have Facebook or Instagram installed on their phones.
Try It
The below links will launch experiences on your smartphone:
How to build AR experiences on Instagram
If you’re a creative agency, we would love to chat more about the capabilities of this exciting new platform.
About Savage Digital
Savage aims to be the most cost-effective digital production partner for agencies, while still delivering high-end, polished creative work. Websites, apps, AR/VR, games. We started in 2015 and now work with more than 15 prestigious agencies as their on-call digital department extension. Drop us a line!