Snapchat Touts the Rising Value of AR for Promotions

Have you considered the potential AR for your 2023 promotions?

Snapchat’s already seeing good levels of success with its AR shopping activations, which it continues to advance in line with the latest developments in device tech. And with AR set to become an even bigger interactive element, with the expected arrival of AR glasses at some stage in the next few years, it could be worth paying attention to the latest AR advances, and considering if and how they might fit into your promotional strategy.

Underlining this, Snapchat has today shared that Walmart’s recent Catalog-Powered Shopping Lenses reached over 35 million users in the app, leading to more than 161 million virtual trials of featured Walmart items.

That’s significant, especially when you also consider Snap’s full user base is 363 million daily actives.

Indeed, Snap says that over 250 million of its users – or 72% of its active user base - engage with AR elements in the app every day, and as this becomes a more common, habitual practice, and more people get accustomed to using virtual try-on tools and other digital elements, the expectations around AR shopping are rising, which could provide even more opportunities for brands.

Snap’s AR shopping tools have also been beneficial for outdoor garden furniture brand Skeidar, which developed catalog-powered Shopping lenses that enable Snap users to test out different types of outdoor garden furniture, while eyewear and fashion retailers are also increasingly leaning into AR tools to showcase their products in new ways.

And with more people now more accustomed to shopping online, and the convenience of browsing products from your mobile device, the demand for enhanced shopping experiences like this is only rising, providing more potential to reach interested consumers with engaging, interactive and enjoyable campaigns.

It does take development, and you do need to have some level of understanding of AR systems to scan in your products, and ensure they scale correctly using LiDAR and other elements.

But the opportunities are rising, and such systems are getting easier to use, which could make it a more valuable option for brands moving into the new year.

If you’re looking to get a better handle on the current state of AR, and how it might work for your products, it’s worth checking out Lens Web Builder, or downloading Lens Studio to get a feel for what’s possible, and how you can create AR experiences in the app.