Augmented Reality Advertising Effectiveness

Pringles ‘Frank the Zombie’ advertising campaign research shows the true impact of Augmented Reality (AR) compared to other digital media. The results of this study have shown the effectiveness of AR in driving brand metrics at different points in the funnel, its importance in the media mix to validate AR as an advertising medium and how behavioural data can predict attitude change.

Pringles wanted to measure the impact of for their ‘Frank the Zombie’ campaign in the UK to understand the effectiveness of Augmented Reality alongside traditional advertising formats. Pringles needed to assess their investment in AR objectively to make more informed decisions about future projects. Yahoo’s partnership with Xbox included multiple digital media formats so the challenge was to demonstrate ROI by quantifying the value of Augmented Reality in the media mix, to understand the role AR has on the media plan and to advance the use of Extended Reality (XR) data analytics to measure consumer behaviour.

Yahoo used Gorilla in the room’s XR data analytics platform to accurately assess the effect of Augmented Reality as an integrated part of a mobile research study. Our intelligence engine, powered by AI and Cognitive Science, captured Six Degrees of Freedom (6DOF) spatial movement within the AR Pringles experience to measure real human behaviour. People were exposed to all digital media formats of the Pringles campaign however one group had the full immersive AR experience whilst the second control group only had a video version of the AR content. Cross channel brand impact was measured (i.e. traditional measurement for digital display combined with AR) to understand which channel impacted brand metrics. To measure brand success, uplifts in the main brand KPIs between the exposed and control group assessed the real impact of AR versus other media with Gorilla in the room’s advanced behavioural data measures.

The main brand metrics for measuring success for the Pringles campaign ranged from awareness to brand perceptions (such as a “snack for me”) through to purchase intent. The control group showed a brand uplift across all Yahoo ad formats including native, pre roll etc however there was a significantly higher brand uplift for those with the full immersive AR experience. Whilst all adverting platforms played a part, Augmented Reality shifted brand KPI’s more than other advertising formats. AR impacted brand metrics at different points in the funnel with higher scores compared to the control group who didn’t have the ‘Frank the Zombie’ AR experience.

Our XR data analytics engine predicted better outcomes and delivered richer insights on physiological behaviour within the AR Pringles experience to measure navigation (the angle, distance, position and order of events in the user journey), attention (the time, sequence and priority of elements which users looked at) and how immersed people were (the levels of interest, engagement and exploration of the content). In addition to analysing the effectiveness of the creative execution, these metrics on human behaviour validated the brand shifts with higher levels of engagement accurately predicting attitudinal shifts.

Measurements about how people felt about the AR creative provoked the most positive reaction (83% against an average of 73% across the other digital formats) which was supported by verbatim comments.

“It was a really fun experience and stuck in my mind” (Male, 29)

“It was fun and contemporary” (Female, 42)

“It was different and exciting. The grey hand coming out the container scared me as first when I did the AR experience” (Male, 30)

“It was new and innovative and like most AR ads it feels personalised and easier to connect with” (Female, 24)

This study demonstrates that Augmented Reality has an important role to play in advertising, as part of the media mix and across the brand funnel, with a positive impact on consumer perception of a brand and measurable results against brand metrics. Spatial data on user behaviours in 3D environments delivers performance metrics on the creative and assists brands in driving the advertising effectiveness of AR experiences. Applying innovative research methods and advanced XR data analytics proves the ROI for Augmented Reality as more than a creative tool, but also a marketing channel to drive business results.