Ford of Britain has launched an augmented reality campaign to promote the new 7 seat Grand C-MAX car on JCDecaux mall 6 Sheet screens. The campaign allows people to handle and explore a 3D “virtual” model of the multi-people vehicle on screen, in the palm of their hands.
The campaign was created by public relations agency Ogilvy & Mather in London and production company Grand Visual, and uses Inition’s augmented reality software to merge real life footage with the 3D photo-real version of the Ford Grand C-MAX on screen.
Users interact with the car simply by holding their hands up in front of the screen. Virtual buttons around the edge of the screen offer the user options to choose the colour of the car, open doors, fold the seats flat, turn the car 360 degrees and select demos of the car’s key features such as Active Park Assist.
This is the first outdoor augmented reality campaign to use 3D depth imaging technology in the UK. Rather than relying on a printed marker or symbol as a point of reference for interaction, a Panasonic D-Imager camera (similar to the Microsoft Kinect) accurately measures the depth of the scene and tracks users’ hands in real-time, ignoring the background of the busy shopping mall. This means the user interface is based on natural movement and hand gestures allowing any passerby to immediately start interacting with the screen content.
“Using live interactive outdoor campaigns is a great way to really engage with the audience in a way that is not possible with static posters.” said Mark Simpson at Ford. “This has enabled us to create a targeted and tactical campaign that is relevant and fun to use.”
Stuart Cupit, MD of Inition said: “Developments in 3D and interactive technology, such as depth sensing and gestural interfaces, now enable advertisers to deliver ever more personal experiences to the consumer. This is the era when the customer has taken control of the technology and Inition has a wealth of experience to help our customers realise this.”
The campaign is running for two weeks at 10 sites across Bluewater, Bullring, MetroCentre and other selected shopping centres around the country.
Watch the video below to see how Inition’s augmented reality software is making advertising fun again.
FORD C-max DOOH AR campaign from INITION on Vimeo.