Getting real with augmented reality technology in the pet industry

Potential for the pet industry

As augmented reality (AR) is making its marks beyond games and entertainment, in the fields of training and education, marketing, and PR, we take a look at its potential for the pet industry.

What exactly is AR?

But what is AR? Actually, AR is part of the umbrella term ‘extended reality’. This term covers all kinds of immersive technologies, including:

• Augmented reality (AR)
• Virtual reality (VR)
• Mixed reality (MR)

These extended reality technologies add to the real world, by either overlaying digital content over the actual environment (AR, MR) or by creating a fully immersive experience (VR). Here we deal mostly with AR technology, its value and use in the pet industry.

Currently, AR is mostly used in the camera of a smartphone. Whether as a mobile app with AR function, or as a web page with AR module, or even as AR filters in social media apps such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or Snapchat: AR adds to our visual experience of the world.

The number of mobile AR users worldwide is expected to reach a staggering 2.4 billion by 2023. Potentially, this is an industry worth $18 billion (€15 billion).

How does AR work?

We will not go into the technical details here, but using AR is amazingly simple! Just point the camera in your smartphone to whatever it is you want to take a picture of. The object (or view) is recognised by the app and displays the image with digital content built-in. Such content can consist of videos, 3Ds, 360° images, interactive games and more. In fact, when it comes to content, almost everything is possible in AR.

Three ways in which the pet industry stands to benefit

Basically, there are three areas in which applying AR technology has great potential for the pet industry:

1. Make your product talk to a customer, tell its story and immerse the customer fully in it, when the packaging of your product is activated in AR. Going beyond just simply having printed packaging, AR can be used as an additional communication channel and help increase brand awareness, and by extension, boost sales.
2. Enable your customers to try the product in their own home or environment before buying it. For instance, let them see what the dog bed looks like in their living room or try the new bowl in the kitchen. Let them play with the sizes, colours and complementary products.
3. Let your customer live your brand story. Capture 360° videos of your manufacturing process and share it with your customers through the AR portal. This can help you to build strong emotional connections between your customers and your brand, broadcast your brand values, and engage users in your brand’s story.

Endless possibilities

Of course, the possible applications of AR technology are much wider than these three. AR can be integrated into your existing digital ecosystem, merged with your loyalty programme or applied to your marketing and sales strategies and activities, to name but a few.

A recent, fun example in the pet industry is Pet Krewe. The company makes fantastic costumes for pets. Using an AR application, Pet Krewe customers can make dressing up even funnier by creating magical worlds around their pets in augmented reality.

As extended reality technologies develop even further, they will offer even more value-adding user cases that empower businesses to boost sales. It is expected that extended reality technology will become as prominent as mobile devices are in today’s market. How are you set to benefit?