Augmented Reality Marketing Examples: 10 Campaigns

A marketing manager is asked in a meeting, “Can we do something with AR?” These augmented reality marketing examples show what brands have really done with it. Most fall into five types: try-on, social lenses, games, street surprises and live event AR. Pick the type by the goal you need to hit, not by the technology.

Augmented reality (AR) overlays digital content on the real world through a phone, tablet or screen.

Unlike virtual reality, AR doesn’t shut you off from the room. You keep seeing your surroundings, with something extra added. That is why it works so well for products you want to see in your own home, and for crowds standing in the same space.

What does AR marketing do well?

AR marketing does four jobs well: it invites attention, lets people try before they buy, gets shared, and gives people a reason to take part rather than just watch. It can be weaker as a pure reach tool, because someone has to choose to open it.

Dwell time. Something people can play with invites more time than something they only look at.
Try before you buy. Seeing a sofa in your lounge or a lipstick on your face reduces doubt.
Shareability. Lenses and games produce content people post themselves.
Participation. The audience acts, which makes a good moment to capture a lead or a sign-up.

10 augmented reality marketing examples

Here are ten campaigns, grouped by type. Years and platforms are given, with a source for each, so you can check them before anything goes in a deck.

Visualise and try-on

Try-on AR answers the question “will this suit me or my space?” It suits retail and ecommerce, where the barrier to buying is uncertainty.

IKEA Place (2017). An app that lets you place true-to-scale 3D IKEA furniture in your own room through your phone camera. IKEA announced it in September 2017, built on Apple’s ARKit for iOS 11, and it remains a go-to example of AR in retail.
Sephora Virtual Artist (2016). A feature in Sephora’s app that shows make-up on your own face through the camera. It launched in 2016 with lip colours, using technology from ModiFace, and later added eyeshadow and lashes. It turns a hard in-store decision into a quick one at home.
Warby Parker virtual try-on (2019). The glasses retailer’s iPhone app added a try-on feature in February 2019. It uses Apple’s ARKit and the TrueDepth face-tracking camera on iPhone X and later to show how frames look on you. It targets a product that is personal and normally bought in person.

Social lenses put a branded effect inside an app people already use. They are quick to share and suit launches and campaigns with a short life.

Taco Bell on Snapchat (2016). A Cinco de Mayo lens turned the user’s head into a giant taco. Marketing Dive reported a record 224 million views in one day, a figure that comes from the campaign’s own reporting rather than an independent audit.
Dune: Part Two on Snapchat (2024). A Snapchat Lens made with Warner Bros. dressed users as Fremen and put them on a sandworm ahead of the film’s March 2024 release. It is a typical film-launch use: a lens as one part of a wider campaign.

Gamified and rewarded AR

Games give people a reason to come back and a reason to go somewhere. They suit footfall and loyalty goals.

Pokemon Go sponsorship in Japan (2016). Niantic’s game puts creatures in the camera view of the real world. When it launched in Japan in July 2016, McDonald’s Japan became its first sponsor, with reports of around 3,000 restaurants turned into in-game gyms and PokeStops. It tied an AR game to real shop locations.
Pizza Hut PAC-MAN (2021). Customers scanned a QR code on a special-edition pizza box, and a playable PAC-MAN maze appeared on the box in their phone browser, with no app to download. It shows packaging acting as the entry point to AR.

Out-of-home and print surprises

Street and print AR works when you want one memorable moment that gets filmed and shared.

Pepsi Max “Unbelievable” bus shelter (2014). In March 2014, AMV BBDO and Pepsi Max fitted a bus shelter on London’s New Oxford Street with a screen that mixed a live feed of the street with digital extras such as a tiger, a meteor and an alien abduction. It is AR on a screen rather than a phone, and the film of commuters’ reactions carried the campaign.
Burger King “Burn That Ad” (2019). In Brazil, the Burger King app let users point their phone at a rival chain’s ad and watch it burn. Once the flames died down, the app revealed a coupon for a free Whopper. It was used to promote the brand’s mobile pre-order tool.

At live events

AR games and branded AR spaces at activations. At a stand or event, AR becomes shared and in person. Guests explore and play in a branded space built around your brand. This is the type we build ourselves, covered in the live event section below.

Which AR type fits which goal?

Choose the type by the outcome you want. If the goal is leads at a stand, a game or a branded space works best. If the goal is online reach on a launch, a lens is the lighter option.

Goal	AR type	What the audience needs	Works best
Reduce purchase doubt	Visualise or try-on	A phone with a good camera and your app	Ecommerce, retail
Quick reach on a launch	Social lens	A social app they already use	Launches, short campaigns
Footfall and repeat visits	Gamified AR	An app or web link and a reason to play	Retail, hospitality
One memorable moment	Out-of-home or print	Nothing, if it’s a screen in the street	City streets, posters
Leads and dwell time in the room	Live event AR	A short briefing and a host	Trade shows, activations, conferences

If VR is what you actually have in mind, that is a different thing. See our VR experiences for the headset-based options.

Taking AR into a live event or trade stand

At an event, AR can be a group activity rather than a feature on one person’s phone. We build custom, branded AR spaces and AR games for activations, conferences and trade shows, and you can see what is on offer on our augmented reality experience page.

If you are weighing it up for your own stand, these are the planning questions to settle first:

What should a visitor do? Play, then leave details, share a photo, or collect a prize. Decide before the design starts.
How will the branding show up? The game or space can be built around your product, colours and message.
Who runs it on the day? Someone should brief each visitor quickly and keep the queue moving.
What happens when it’s busy? Think about how long one person plays and where the next person waits.
What counts as success? Pick one number: leads, plays or shares.

Setup, breakdown and all equipment are included with our corporate events, so your team can focus on talking to people. Our brand activation and trade show pages cover the wider picture. Past corporate activations include work for DHL, General Electric and Nando’s.

How to start with AR marketing

Start small. One goal, one moment and one measurable action will beat a big idea with no way to tell if it worked.

Pick one goal. Awareness, leads, footfall or sales.
Pick one moment. A launch, a trade show or a seasonal campaign.
Choose the AR type from the table above.
Define one action to measure. For example sign-ups, plays or shares.
Check the claims. Before copying any example into a pitch, check its year and result against the brand’s own page or the sources linked above.

FAQs

Can you give me an example of augmented reality marketing?

IKEA Place is a classic example. The app, launched in 2017, lets shoppers place true-to-scale 3D furniture in their own room through a phone camera before buying. It shows the core idea of AR marketing: removing doubt at the moment of decision. You can see more in the visualise and try-on section above.

How is augmented reality used in marketing?

Brands use AR in five main ways: letting people try or visualise products, building social lenses tied to a launch, running rewarded games, surprising people on streets and print, and creating branded experiences at live events. Each suits a different goal, from awareness to lead capture.

What are 10 real-world examples of augmented reality?

In marketing, ten well-known examples are IKEA Place, Sephora Virtual Artist, Warby Parker virtual try-on, Taco Bell’s Snapchat taco lens, Dune: Part Two’s Snapchat Lens, Pokemon Go sponsorship in Japan, Pizza Hut’s PAC-MAN game, Pepsi Max’s bus shelter, Burger King’s Burn That Ad and AR games at live events.

What is an example of augmented reality?

Augmented reality adds digital content on top of the real world through a phone, tablet or screen. Pokemon Go is the best-known example: creatures appear in the camera view as if they were standing on your street. Unlike VR, you are never shut off from the room around you.

Want AR at your next stand or activation? Tell us about your event and we’ll put together a tailored proposal.