Tesco is delivering greater consumer engagement using Augmented Reality here and now!

With so much recent noise in the tech press around the launch of Augmented Reality (AR) solutions for consumers from the US giants Amazon and Google, it's easy to forget that the UK’s biggest retailer has been delivering successful AR solutions to their customers for the past 18 months.

Amazon's Firefly is widely heralded as the technology that will finally deliver AR shopping to the mainstream and yet Tesco's approach has already delivered impressive results. Starting with own brand products and publications, Tesco has built up an impressive user base of nearly 150k active users of its Tesco Discover app.

Coca-Cola and Disney invest in AR to connect with consumers

The rapidly growing and engaged user base has made it easy for Tesco to attract major global consumer brands including Coca-Cola, Disney and Merlin Entertainments to invest in the Tesco Discover AR platform for a range of immersive campaigns created, delivered and monitored by creative and technical partner Engine Creative.

Tesco’s commitment to AR technology is based on solid evidence that consumers are interacting with the retail environment in a much more connected way; according to Cisco, by 2020, 37 billion ‘intelligent’ things will be connected to the Internet including millions of products in the retail environment.

The benefits of a brand owned AR platform

By taking ownership over their own AR platform, Tesco has managed to achieve massively increased dwell times compared to other media types and has also trumped stand alone AR platforms such as Blippar with average results for AR campaigns using the Tesco Discover app more than 2.5x longer than its rivals.

Consumers trust the Tesco brand and receive additional benefits by accessing exclusive digital content through the Tesco Discover app. Tesco can also monitor and build their AR platform in a way which dovetails perfectly with their brand vision and, by working with Augmented Reality experts Engine Creative, have also managed to achieve significant cost savings for high volume AR campaign activity compared to other stand alone AR platforms.

This approach also gives Tesco complete control over the technical development of their AR platform enabling them to embed and test new technology such as proximity communications quickly and efficiently.

Getting to grips with how consumers interact with the physical web

From Apple’s CarPlay and HealthKit announcements at their latest WWDC event, Google’s Glass and wearables investments and Facebook’s acquisition of virtual reality pioneer Occulus Rift, it’s clear that the physical web is here and now.

Tesco have taken a lead in the retail sector by enabling their customers to connect the physical world to the Internet using their Tesco Discover AR platform. Whilst other major retailers play catch up, Tesco continues to reinvent the retail experience using Augmented Reality technology in our increasingly connected world.

About Engine Creative

We are experts in delivering our clients measurable results through immersive Augmented Reality (AR) brand experiences.

We have specific expertise working with digital innovations to build user engagement with our clients' brands with achievements including:

- Launching the world's first fully augmented magazine (TopGear, Dec 2011)

- Creating the first fully augmented reality album cover for a UK band (Ting Tings, Feb 2012)

- FIPP Digital Innovators Summit Editor's & Readers Award (TopGear augmented magazine)

- Drum Marketing Award for Brand Development Strategy (Bauer Media heat mobile strategy, May 2013)

- RAR Award and RAR Digital Awards for Creativity & Innovation (June 2014)

Engine Creative is currently working with Tesco, Coca-Cola, Lacoste, PizzaHut, Disney, Mazda and Thorntons on building consumer engagement through digital innovations.