The Design Business Show 213: The Future of Augmented Reality with Rich Watson

Rich Watson is a strong force in Augmented Reality Marketing. He has spoken all over the world about the future of eCommerce and how it will be brought into Web 3.0. Rich has over 8 years of Facebook ad media buying experience, and he is an avid believer in the potential of Non-Fungible Tokens and the metaverse.

When he’s not working or speaking, Rich enjoys spending time with his wife in the coastal city of Da Nang in the center of Vietnam.

Here’s what we covered on the episode:

What is Augmented Reality?

Before stepping into the Web 3.0 world, Rich worked in paid marketing for Facebook, Instagram where he worked with primarily eCommerce clients
Augmented Hype is Rich’s business that helps online business leverage augmented reality for their marketing
One of the biggest things people need to start doing when it comes to Web 3.0 is building a community
Rich shares that the difference between virtual reality and augmented reality is that with virtual reality, you’re stepping into a virtual environment, but with augmented reality, you’re augmenting your immediate surroundings, yourself, your room, etc., with something digital
To Rich, the Metaverse is this world with no boundaries, a chance to be anything you want and be able to connect with anyone you want at any time you want – it’s a digitally rendered amplified version of the world
An example of augmented reality is when sites let you see what something would look like in your actual home before you buy it, like what a specific rug or wall color would look like, so you can make a more informed purchase decision
Rich explains how you can use augmented reality for all parts of your sales funnel
When it comes to using new technology, look at what’s already working within your industry and think about how it can become a more immersive experience
A simple example Rich gives is with beauty products; augmented reality allows you to try different products on to see how they’d look on you before purchasing, something you can’t necessarily do at a store – this also means consumers might try something they wouldn’t have in the store

How to Use Augmented Reality in Your Business

One case study of Rich’s shows how they were able to help a client increase their average order value by 50% because they gave people a chance to try the top 6 – 8 selling lipsticks through augmented reality
By allowing people to have the most realistic experience with your products, you can lower your return rate and customer service inquiries
Rich explains that the barrier to entry for augmented reality is the lowest it’s ever been because there are many ways to do it without having an app – there’s social and web augmented reality, for example
Web 3.0 is the new internet infrastructure that’s coming – the idea is for you to own the data through your communities
Augmented reality can set you apart from your competition, and it can help lower the returns that your competitors might have
Rich shares a Squid Game example; a creator from Singapore created a Squid Game augmented reality that reached 500 million people organically
You can go into different galleries (Lens for Snapchat and Spark for Meta) and scroll around to see different creators and what they’ve made
Augmented Hype started working with agencies where they were their augmented reality specialist and helped achieve specific objectives for different campaigns
Shopify did a study that showed using augmented reality to visualize products increased conversion rates by up to 200%
How Rich created a Slack Community called Augmented Marketers to help people add this service to their agencies
Rich helps people implement augmented reality into their business and works with them for 2 months so they can continuously optimize and change things when needed, which is not something a lot of augmented reality services do
Go to the Augmented Hype website to see examples, download freebies, and join their community
The biggest thing with augmented reality, Rich says, is making it as clear as possible – keep it simple, especially when starting out
Rich says that even implementing the most complex augmented reality into your campaign strategy wouldn’t take longer than 2 working weeks
When it comes to what’s next for Rich’s business, he says they’ll be focusing on educating and showing people how you can use augmented reality
Rich gives an example where Disney+ used augmented reality for a short film called, Remembering where you downloaded the app, and during the movie, your phone would ring, and when you opened it, the movie spilled out into your room
Augmented Reality glasses are the future, Rich believes, and within the next 3 – 5 years, he believes they’ll replace phones
Check out the Augmented Hype Website to learn more, and connect with Rich on Instagram and LinkedIn