Will augmented reality ever take off in B2B marketing?

YES –

It is only a matter of time before we will see B2B marketers more fully make use of Augmented Reality technology.

Therefore, for me the question should not be will, but when will augmented reality take off in B2B Marketing.

In the last two months we have seen a lot of buzz with Fedex and Regis both getting involved in this space, and by Q3 of 2011 we should see businesses engaging and using technology for B2B.

Traditionally, early adopters of emerging technology have been consumers and only once they have made their way into the mainstream do B2B marketers consider them. I think it’s a case of businesses realising the potential of what can be done, and thinking more creatively about the applications that will work for them. There is no point in investing in this until they know it will work for them.

AR has always been more widespread than people believe, but because the capabilities of this are still being developed and is not considered fully mainstream, it is currently being overlooked. With so many different trends evolving, it could be considered by some businesses as a bit gimmicky, and therefore not always top of the agenda for B2B marketers. However, with the pace of emerging technology currently increasing, we will start to see this becoming widely adopted as these digital marketing techniques filter down.

The public sector and military training camps are already using some form of this technology and certainly the training industries are investigating its potential. For example, using the B2C model such as store-locators, B2B marketers could use AR for product training purposes.  The next phase of AR will make sure that this technology can work cross-platform, but this is something that realistically won’t be perfected until at least 2012.