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(1/20) State of WebAR Part #1: AR Agencies
Q4 19 and Q1 20 were largely great times to be an Agency specializing in AR. WebAR & Social AR were entering the digital marketing lexicon. A ton of large Fortune 500 Brands were still turning to dedicated AR agencies for activations.
Q4 19 and Q1 20 were largely great times to be an Agency specializing in AR. WebAR & Social AR were entering the digital marketing lexicon. A ton of large Fortune 500 Brands were still turning to dedicated AR agencies for activations.
(2/20) We also saw formation of newer, smaller, AR-focused agencies that were bringing in new business to us at 8th Wall. Some of the people forming these were coming from larger advertisers/marketers, but many were also creators banding together to form small businesses.
(3/20) *Then COVID-19 really started to impact things around late March.*
Since that time, a couple of things happened at the AR Agency level:
Since that time, a couple of things happened at the AR Agency level:
(4/20) A.) A lot of AR experiences related to out-of-home -sporting events, travel, in-store- were either postponed til Fall or cancelled altogether. Some of the work done had already been paid for, but a lot of ambitious AR Agency projects set to get built were no longer viable
(5/20) B.) We saw a rise in activations from Agencies that were designed for "in-home" specifically because of COVID-19. This includes the band Real Estate's Quarantour concert and the Israeli President Hologram to celebrate Independence Day.
(6/20) We've also seen some new ideas for WebAR to ease constrained movement -- in e-commerce, hospitality, etc. Those should hopefully come to fruition in the coming two quarters, as many areas still have rules dictating social distancing.
(7/20) C.) Activations in industries WebAR was already solid in -automotive, alcohol, entertainment (streaming), fashion, consumer tech- have remained relatively popular. And it's largely AR-specific Agencies driving this business, since they have done projects with them before.
(8/20) Definitely a "flight to quality" happening, as they say, with bigger brands leveraging agencies they've already worked with.
(9/20) That being said, what once was a meteoric rise for utilizing WebAR became more like a flatter growth line in late March, or even a dip in certain instances. Particularly as some of the biggest $ projects in the past have been tied to "events" like sports + movie premieres
(10/20) D.) Social AR became more of a "thing" the last couple quarters. To the point where dedicated Social AR agencies have arisen. This became more viable once Snapchat lowered their initially exorbitant pricing for getting promoted branded AR featured on their platform.
