How charities are campaigning using augmented reality
At a glance...
Augmented reality is becoming more prominent as a marketing tool, but can be expensive to experiemnt with without it contributing to your organisation's goals. Charities such as CoppaFeel! and Save the Children have recently launched innovative campaigns using augmented reality.
Websites, blogs, email newsletters and social media have long been standard tools in the campaigner’s toolkit, but there’s a new kid on the block - augmented reality.
Many charities, as a result of cuts to funding, project closures and the loss of key staff, are turning to technology to communicate their messages more efficiently and to larger numbers of potential supporters. Augmented reality is one such technology.
According to WIkipedia, “Augmented reality (AR) is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.” At its most basic, it involves a user pointing their phone’s screen at a physical object and additional information is overlaid onto the screen, offering additional interaction with the world around them.
There are increasing numbers of augmented reality campaigns in the business world, including a 3D world you can control with your Adidas shoe and augmented reality greetings cards from Hallmark. There are clear benefits to teaching and learning, especially given the proliferation of mobile devices and how reliant students have become on their phones, and the tourism industry can benefit immensely from digital trails and additional signage and information accessible from mobile devices without cluttering the environment with visual noise.
Examples of charity-related augmented reality apps, however, are few and far between.
Enter Save the Children, who have just launched an augmented reality campaign to help raise awareness and boost donations for their East African Appeal, using a digital message embedded in the newsletter mailed to their 240,000 supporters.
Recipients of the newsletter who own an iOS or high-powered Android device simply need to download the free Aurasma app and point the camera of their smartphone at the newsletter to watch an engaging video about the charity's life-saving work, embedded in the page itself. Users then have the option to click-through to Save the Children's website and make a donation.
Alexandra Bono, Senior Digital Fundraising Executive of Save the Children, said:
"At Save the Children, we are always looking for new ways to engage people with the human stories behind our life-saving appeals. Aurasma has enabled us to deliver a digital message through our supporter newsletter, Children Now, which goes to 240,000 of our supporters. Video has the power to connect with people in a very impactful way, and our printed newsletter is a trusted and familiar communication. This campaign, facilitated by Aurasma, brings together these two channels in a compelling new way which we hope will support donations to our East Africa appeal."
Martina King, Managing Director of Aurasma, said:
"We are delighted to be working with our first ever partner in the charitable sector - Save the Children - an organisation devoted to saving lives across 120 countries. Aurasma is a fantastic fit for charities looking to get their message across in these difficult economic times as it delivers very high rates of engagement and is available to our partners for free. It is wonderful to know that our technology can help Save the Children raise awareness of the East African Campaign."
US-based youth breast cancer charity CoppaFeel! recently launched an augmented reality campaign they describe as “The World’s first augmented reality 3D boob billboards”
Using the blippar app for iOS and Android, holding the phone towards the image enabled people to see the boobs in 3D, as well as additional interactivity such as naming them and sharing the picture to Facebook and Twitter to help further promote the campaign. Users could also find out more about 'how to check your boobs' and sign-up to the CoppaFeel! text reminder service.
New technology often requires additional skills or technical expertise to make it work, particularly if an organisation has limited resources or tight budgets. Augmented reality is still quite a new technology, so it needs to demonstrate real value and genuine outcomes if it’s to become a popular campaigning or fundraising tool. The “killer app” will need to go beyond what standard web-based content can deliver to achieve an organisation’s aims in new, innovate and effective ways.
Interested in exploring augemnted reality? Why not try downloading some of augmented reality apps such as Aurasma, Layar or Blippar and try them out:
If you're interested in how you could use augemted reality or other digital technologies to achieve your charity's objectives, please contact us to find out more.
Comment on this article