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Augmented Redux: What We Learned from Our AR Holiday Card

Check out the (award-winning!) results from the augmented reality holiday card we sent in 2018

As you might imagine, we’re over the moon that the AVA Digital Awards honoured us with a Platinum Award in the Augmented Reality category for our AR-enabled holiday card.

For those who don’t know, our card featured an animation of a kind-hearted squirrel who feeds a neighbouring hungry bear. By activating the augmented reality component, viewers contributed a dollar to Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank, echoing the spirit of giving from the story.

Back in December, we reported on the different tack we’d taken with the corporate holiday card we sent out to our clients. While we knew that people still appreciated an analog, signed paper card, we thought adding an augmented reality animated story to the card would be more in keeping with our role as a content marketing company heavily invested in the digital space.

 

Image: The MediaFace team signing holiday cards.

 

In our first post, we talked a lot about the potential of AR. Today, we’re going to talk about AR in action. We gathered a lot of data from our card that showed us the medium’s ability to engage its users. For example, we saw that about 32 per cent of people who received the card activated the AR component, and when they did, they were likely to view it more than once.

Outside of the analytics, we received a lot of happy feedback from the recipients of the card. As our whiteboard filled up with client testimonials, we knew we were on to something special – when was the last time you received a thank-you note for a holiday card?

 

Some of those testimonials:

“I am in the process of sharing the card with the whole team! Absolutely love it! Such a cool idea.”

“I liked it so much I’m taking it home to show my wife and kids.”

 

Even better: the results led to a whole lot of good for our chosen charity, the Daily Bread Food Bank. Our clients’ views brought our donation to a grand total of $507. We were thrilled to present the donation to the Food Bank this January and contribute to their goal of increasing food distribution by 20 per cent across 20 priority neighbourhoods in the city.

 

Image: MediaFace President Jason Colbert (centre) with Daily Bread Food Bank CEO Neil Hetherington and Development Officer Patricia Feehely.

Between the stats, the feedback, and the donation, we had plenty to be happy about with our first major sojourn into the augmented reality space – the AVA Award just sent us right over the top. See the card that started it all for yourself at our Augmented Reality showcase page, and do let us know what you think. Stay tuned for our next foray into AR technology – it’s pretty clear to us that we shouldn’t sleep on it.

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