What's Next for Augmented Reality in Marketing? Measurement, of Course

The metrics available to marketers today

Marketers as a whole have not quite figured out how and where their product fits into augmented reality (AR). As the hardware evolves and consumers adapt, that will begin to change, but any AR activation is of little value unless it can be measured. Tony Bevilacqua, founder and CEO of Cognitive3D—a platform that measures and analyzes data from AR, VR and mixed reality experiences—spoke with eMarketer’s Caroline Cakebread about the metrics available with current AR measurement tools and devices, and what to expect as the ecosystem advances.

eMarketer:

What are the key metrics used for AR experiences?

Tony Bevilacqua:

In AR, we think about distraction time, and the amount of time a user is looking at a phone vs. not looking at the phone. We also measure gaze time, or the amount of time a user centers their gaze on a particular item or brand name. There are a lot of interesting sensor capabilities coming from new mobile devices right now, and the iPhoneX in particular has a lot of eye tracking data that allows us to do that.

One of the more unique elements is the ability to understand how and where people are interacting with a brand’s AR experience. For example, we’d look at the context of the vicinity of an engagement to a similar point of interest, or the correlation between a valuable engagement and a competitor’s location.

From our perspective, knowing that helps inform market expense and how to go about building campaigns.

Interview conducted on August 13, 2018

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