With ongoing advancements in visual technology, businesses are constantly looking for new and innovative methods to promote their brand as well as create engaging experiences for customers and enhance the overall experience of stakeholders. With advancements in smart phone technology, augmented reality is now more accessible than ever to the public, allowing many businesses and brands to develop immersive and captivating content. One industry that has greatly benefitted from utilising augmented reality is the drinks sector, which has now begun to use this innovative technology in its labels to help promote products, increase brand awareness, and enhance the customer experience.
In this blog, we explore 6 different ways in which augmented reality labels have been used within the drinks industry!
…but before we dive in, we should probably give a brief explanation as to what augmented reality technology is!
What is Augmented Reality?
In short, augmented reality is a technology that blends real-world elements with virtual ones. By using a virtual headset, or smart phone device, augmented reality uses cameras and sensor technology to superimpose digital information (such as sounds, images and text) on top of the real world we see. With advancements in smart phone and camera technology, augmented reality has now become incredibly easy to access for everybody and has subsequently allowed many businesses to develop immersive and captivating virtual content.
For example, you may have seen augmented reality used on social media apps such as Instagram and Twitter to add filters and effects on top of photographs and film footage. Augmented reality has also become increasingly popular in the world of gaming, as game developers have utilised smartphone technology to allow players to blend a gaming experience in a real-world setting. The most popular example of this is ‘Pokémon Go’, which allows players to locate, capture, train, and battle virtual Pokémon in the player’s real-world location.
As you can begin to see, there are so many practical ways in which people may have already experienced augmented reality via their smart phone device. However, this incredible technology has also been utilised in a wide variety of different ways by various drinks brands. Here are 6 different examples of augmented reality labels on drinks!
1. 19 Crimes
When we think of augmented reality labels in the drinks industry, one of the most popular and recognisable examples comes from wine brand 19 Crimes. Launched back in 2013, 19 Crimes has a strong brand ethos which celebrates the rebellious spirit of prisoners exiled from 18th-century Britain to Australia, based on their having committed at least one of 19 crimes meriting punishment by deportation.
By downloading the Living Wine Labels App, customers can use their smartphone to watch the static prisoners on the labels come to life and tell their historical stories!
2. Jack Daniels
Another popular example of augmented reality labels in the alcohol industry comes from whiskey brand Jack Daniels. Back in 2019, the distiller crated an augmented reality app experience which allowed customers to learn about the history of the company through an interactive digital pop-up storybook. By downloading the app, this engaging augmented reality experience allowed users to learn about the whisky manufacturing process, check out the Jack Daniels distillery, and learn about the history of the brand.
3. Beer Invaders
As well as educating customers about a product or brand, augmented reality can also be used to provide a highly engaging and entertaining experience. One of the best examples of this comes from Australian-based developer Immertia, who released a prototype augmented reality app allowing brands to add mini games to canned drinks!
This prototype augmented reality experience can be seen in the video below which shows a new augmented reality game called Beer Invaders! This mini game can be accessed by scanning the beer label with a smartphone, which launches the augmented reality game! Here, users can interact with the beer can by tapping on the screen to shoot lasers at the alien invaders.
4. Fanta
As well as creating highly entertaining customer experiences for alcoholic beverages, augmented reality has also been utilised by soft drink brands! For example, back in 2019 global drinks brand Fanta developed an engaging augmented reality experience which was powered by the Shazam app. Here, users were able to scan a Shazam code and access multimedia features such as interactive face-filters, videos, and much more!
5. Coca Cola
Another example of augmented reality labels in the soft drinks industry can be seen in the video below. Here, global mega-brand Coca Cola teamed up with Zappar and Fredinko Illustrations to bring bottles to life with web-based augmented reality.
The benefit of web-based augmented reality is that this does not require users to download a separate app to experience the augmented reality functionality. By scanning the QR code on bottles, users could view exclusive animations and enter a competition.
6. Pure Origin Coffee
Our final example comes from coffee brand Pure Origin, who have used web-based augmented reality to help connect the world and educate their customers. By scanning their packaging with a smartphone, the labels come to life and customers can learn more about the brand, through the stories of coffee bean farmers.
Summary
As you can see, there are so many ways in which drinks brands can implement augmented reality into their packaging and labels. Additionally, with the Metaverse on the horizon, we firmly believe that augmented reality will soon become an essential part of every marketing mix.
With this, our friendly team at Eon Visual Media can collaborate with you to develop a highly interactive and engaging augmented reality experience to help promote your brand and drinks products. For over 10 years, our team of experts have helped to develop apps for some of the UK’s largest B2B and B2C businesses, turning their ideas into reliable and robust pieces of technology.
Want to find out more? Drop us a message, and we would love to chat to you about your idea!
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