How Nonprofit Attractions are Utilizing Augmented Reality

You’re listening to the Marketing Attractions podcast. Conversations on how nonprofit attractions are increasing attendance and sharing their missions through marketing. Your hosts are Ryan Dick and Jenny Williams of Attended Media. Jenny Tase Toppick is how nonprofit attractions are using augmented reality and gosh, I mean, this is something we’ve been hearing about quite a bit, like on message boards and at conferences, ARVR, I’m excited to be talking about this. Yeah, I think as cultural attractions are looking to enhance site guest experience, help share their message, their mission, their vision, their purpose, value, there’s so much to say. And there can be a more exciting way maybe to engage the consumer at the end of the day for all these things. So we’re excited to bring in an expert to talk about that. We’ve got Anna Graham coming in to let us know all things augmented reality. Yeah, Anna is the manager of Marketing Services at RICO USA. Anna, welcome to the show. Hi guys, I’m so happy to be here. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for making the time. Jenny and I really, we really don’t know much about this space. So it’s like, we got to go find an expert and I think we connected through Zeus. So excited to be talking to you. All right. What is augmented reality and how is that different than virtual reality AR versus VR? Yeah, that is such a great question. It’s one we get all the time. AR is such a new technology and it’s used in such a variety of ways that there’s definitely specific perceptions of what the technology is. When I speak with customers the best way I like to explain it is that AR is using computer intelligence to create an illusion that a virtual object is in the same place than our objects in our real world environment. Right. So augmented reality uses a view screen. So think of something like your camera phone screen or an emerging technology, something like the Apple Vision Pro. But something where you can look at the world around you and then see those digital assets being overlaid on top. I’d say probably the best example that we see in the world right now is Pokemon go, right? You see the Pokemon characters they’re standing in your real world environment. You’re playing a game along with them. That’s augmented reality. Gosh, I remember that. That was a big thing. People walking around the corner of the street with their phone running into each other. I liked it. All right. But so virtual reality is different in how? Absolutely. Yeah. So when you’re talking about VR you’re talking about putting on an immersive headset. Certainly there is VR that you can see 360 degrees on your phone. But the true essence of VR is being transported into a completely separate place than where you’re existing right now. So when I talk to people about comparing AR and VR, I think it really comes down to three things. It’s the experience, right? Do you want to bring people into the space you’re at? Do you want to add digital content to where you are? Highlight a location and environment that you’re in? Or do you want to replace the space? Do you want to take somebody somewhere where they may never have an opportunity to visit? Somewhere halfway across the world and space underwater stuff that isn’t traditionally available? The second is the device type, right? We talked about headsets, phones. You know, you have to look at the investment, the technology, the barrier to entry that comes through with things like that. And then cost of course, right? Any experience, whether it’s AR or VR, you’re going to have those setup and implementation cost the hosting of whatever platform you’re deploying it on. But with VR you almost have to have that headset incorporated to have the full effect. So that cost does have to be considered. So I’m already thinking like, and I know we’re going to talk about pricing and implementation in a few minutes, but I’m already thinking like AR relatively to VR is going to be easier to set up and probably a little cheaper to implement that VR is accurate. Absolutely. And organizations probably already have the skill set to accomplish it today. The way that we incorporate augmented reality, we try to center it down to it says, “Complex is shooting a video, whether that’s the video of your environment or of a subject or character.” And then loading it on to essentially a mobile website, just a very powerful smart mobile website. Okay. And then for what you do, Enrico, is it VR and AR, strictly AR? What do we… Yeah. For the most part, it’s augmented reality. We do have a component that is kind of a light version of VR, where you can enter in through a 360-degree space, but it’s all today accomplished on an mobile device. So that would be more of like a mixed reality type concept. But the essence of that 360 is there. Enrico is a big fan of 360 work. We have the data 360 camera where you can see all directions. So, yeah. Bit of work in the VR space as well. Got it. All right. For this episode, we’re team AR though. Like let’s focus on AR stuff. Okay. So let’s get into some media examples. You’re working with a lot of different zoos and nonprofits and cultural attractions on AR experiences. So I think the first thing that comes to mind is how is AR really helping improve the guest experience? How are these cultural attractions using it? What’s working for your clients? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. We see with augmented reality some of the values for an attraction is it solves a lot of those common attraction issues. Right. The nature of the organization of an attraction is that it has to change right now. No attraction wants to have the same exact exhibits offerings year after year. But with doing that, there is construction. There’s going to be the areas and things that were available that are no longer available. One of the biggest advantages of augmented reality is to be able to offer something virtual interactive educational engaging inside of its place. We can also add a personalization effort whether that’s the name, animal, behaviors, facts. Again, engaging beyond just a traditional visual of something cool is coming soon. We can instead say something cool is coming soon. And in the meantime, please enjoy this engaging augmented reality experience. So an example that would come to mind in terms of organizations that have seen do this really well would be serious visual. They’re a marketing organization located in Tucson, Arizona. They actually developed an augmented reality photo opportunity for the Reed Park Zoo. And the idea there was to drive foot traffic to areas and exhibits that typically don’t get as much engagement because they might not be as popular as some of the other exhibits. And one of the really cool parts of augmented reality is we can actually put that to the test. So every time somebody accesses an augmented reality web page, they provide that reporting analytics on the back end to the organization. So we can actually see how many people did come through those specific areas engage with the air experience as opposed to maybe a different area. So I’m coming through the zoo and I’m getting access to this base off of scanning my using my phone to scan a QR code right to. Like have a different experience versus what’s right in front of me, right? Is that how I’m using it? Yeah, yeah, it could be and it could be a QR code. It also could be a mobile link, right? It could be a link that’s on a web page could be a text message and email notification. So a lot of different ways that we can encourage and bring bring people into the the AR environment throughout the attraction experiences. So I’m thinking the it’s a time of year when that animal is not quite as active or it’s a time of date when they’re not quite as active, right? Maybe they’re sleeping. These are all things where you could maybe share examples or educate the consumer on what they would see in this exhibit or kind of giving them a little bit more to engage with versus just walking on by and thinking while I best out on that. That is such a great point. And that’s one of the first reasons why we really got interested in making AR animals. It was we had certain team members within our organization taking their children to the zoo excited to see you know, Sammy the elephant, Sammy’s sleeping, Sammy’s getting medical treatment out there. You know, how do we still have that personal experience? And I think right now in this day and age, that’s really important because people are forming paraso show relationships with attractions. So right, we have Moodang in Thailand. I know here in Chicago, we have a corp flower named Alice. So I think you know, being able to take that pair social relationship is step further and spend some personal time without it being, you know, an expensive, you know, one on one meet and greet or something that puts burden on the animal. This allows you to have that that relationship without adding that much stress. I like the idea of getting more people to take pictures and share on their socials. I, you know, I’m the one on the guy wants to sell tickets, right? I’m the guy who wants to blow up on. On Instagram. So what I’m hearing is this is just another opportunity to create, you know, these quote unquote, instigramable spots within your attraction, whether you know, you can take a picture with the parrot over your shoulder or you can take a picture inside the big tree or. Is that kind of headed down the right direction? Absolutely. Yeah, that’s exactly what re parcs is doing and then we have other organizations that are kind of taking that concept to step further. We worked with a large health care organization that had a kids day event. They had kids come on and stand on a green screen record personal messages to their friends and their family. And then we turned those into hologram assets that they got to take home. So it doesn’t necessarily even have to be that like static of just taking a picture of a parrot in the real world space. We can take the guests and make them the air assets in these type of experiences as well. Very cool. Yeah, I’m thinking of so many different ways that attractions can utilize this type of feature. Have a education, right? There’s beyond just the animals in the exhibit in terms of. You know, the fun that they bring right we’ve got mission purpose value that these cultural attractions are trying to use to educate the consumer right so how are you using that and with or how’s a are helping with that. Absolutely. Yeah, so with augmented reality, I think one of the best things that we can offer is an unlimited number of content without really burdening the physical space of an attraction too much right. So if you think about the different places where an attraction might offer education that’s usually on plaques and signage with plaques and signage, we really we want to add plaques and signages, but that’s at the point that it takes away from the environments that we’re walking in and participating in with augmented reality. It could be something as small as a QR code that they could scan and have access to a library of videos, educational resources links to other web pages and that stuff that they could access immediately while they’re at the attraction or something we can encourage them. Hey, take that, take that home with you and then enjoy your time, you know, physically enjoying the space. So whichever way that you can offer it, whether it’s in, you know, in person educational experience or off site, I think augmented reality really threads that needle. Speaking of off site, I know we were talking about some cool stuff that you had a zoo partner doing in conjunction with a local hospital. Tell us that story. Yeah, so the Galisano’s Children’s Hospital in Rochester, New York, they are home to children who unfortunately do not have the ability to go to the local zoos and attractions in their area. The Santa Capparca Zoo understood that and with partnership within Rico and the Children’s Hospital. We all work together to create a children’s book that is provided to two children as they are admitted into the hospital. The book offers up to, I believe, 10 different animal, AR experiences, which they can deploy inside of their rooms during medical treatments or waiting results. It offers different activity pages, things to offer some type of distraction away from maybe a reality that they’re dealing with right now. And then lastly, and something that Santa Capparca Zoo played a huge role in was offering that educational material. So in addition to the content in the books being fully vetted and supported through the Santa Capparca Zoo on every single AR experience, there’s links to the Santa Capparca Zoo for their existing educational content that they had already put together. So it was a great way to leverage expertise that was already in the world inside of this book for these children. You’re listening to the Marketing Attractions podcast. Conversations on how non-profit attractions are increasing attendance and sharing their mission through marketing. Your hosts are Ryan Dick and Jenny Williams of Attend Media. Attend Media is a media planning and buying agencies, specializing in zoos, aquariums, gardens and museums. For more information, please visit attend.media. Now back to Ryan and Jenny. Let’s keep going with some more examples here. Tell us, Anna, how other nonprofits are using AR with RICO? Yeah, so just in general, non-profits have such a great opportunity to showcase their fill and traffic efforts. Really with a non-profit, we can kind of hit to avenues, right? We could talk about leveraging this as a way to compel people to make a donation or sponsor. The organization with the attractions trying to offer. The other avenue is to showcase what’s already been accomplished. I think Boyd Foundation, which is a non-profit in Columbia, South Carolina is a great example of that. They’ve funded really fantastic attractions such as the Hampton Preston Historical Mansion, the Boyd Island Sanctuary, the Riverbank Zoo in Aquarium, and have started to work with us on utilizing AR as a way to promote the amazing work that they’ve done. We’ve actually set up virtual tours that are done through augmented reality where they can see these facilities, see where the exact fill and traffic efforts went towards, and be able to promote the value of these organizations and why they exist. We’ve already completed the ones for the Boyd Island in Hampton Preston, and then later this year we’ll be launching the ones for Riverbank Zoo. That’s such a great way to just build trust with consumers as well, too. I love that example. All right, all right. This augmented reality thing, it sounds pretty cool. I’m making a little checklist here, and we talked about just enhancing the guest experience, what happens if an exhibit, or maybe for the animal care folks, the animal folks are down, or the animals sleeping and not quite out. We talked about increasing the amount of social shares that we could possibly get with some of the cool AR stuff that we can do. I love what you said about extending the mission and an education initiative into a children’s hospital who doesn’t want to do that. Then we’re touching donations, virtual tours, but here we go. How are we going to sell tickets? Can you lay out a case on how AR can help sell tickets, drive visitation? I’m looking at visitation, I’m looking at ticket revenue. What do you got? Absolutely. I’d see it augmented reality as a great way to incentivize and gamify the engagement into an AR experience. In terms of incentivization, it’s a great way to promote things like giveaways, contests, scavenger hunts, challenges, all those fun things of do this, get a prize for it, participate, fill out a question. I think with a lot of that comes the gamification, that could be scavenger hunt looking for things throughout an attraction. It could be a quiz game where they have to guess the correct answer for something. It could be doing specific photo opportunities as part of a photo contest. I think all of these things are ways that really entice people, incentivize people to come and participate, to bring their own vision and perception into things. We see a lot of really positive tickets sales through that. One really best, great best practice that we see organizations do with augmented reality is utilizing it in their marketing efforts as another communication channel for marketing. DirectMales is probably the best example of that. One of the common challenges with DirectMale comes back to that concept of reporting and analytics. We can really get people analytics down to the point where the consumer gets the postcard in their mailbox, but really don’t know what happens after that. Did they look at the postcard and throw it away? Did they click on, you know, scan a QR code, engage on something. Once we incorporate that augmented reality, both the incentivization, right? There’s something fun on that QR code that makes me want to scan it paired with the analytics that we can receive on the back end. It becomes a really powerful marketing tool. Another nice value add is that there’s currently a USPS postal discount of 3% on mail pieces with augmented reality. So I see a lot of organizations using that postal discount to really offset some of the costs, dip their toe in the water and see if AR is something that’s going to be a good fit within their organization. I want you to, I feel like you shared some really great stories. And so just kind of going back to the direct mail piece, we were kind of chatting offline a little bit and you had a great use case for I think it was selling season tickets for a university. Can you share that story a little bit about how they’re incorporating that into their direct mail? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so this university worked with a marketing agency that leveraged the augmented reality technology. And what they did was they created this really enticing mail piece encouraging people to sign up to be season ticket holders. And I think the really smart thing that they did is the AR hologram that they created was of the head coach of that organization. So when they received that mail piece and they scan that QR code they saw their head coach appear provide a really compelling message of, you know, please support our organization come join us sign up for season tickets at the bottom of the air experience. There was a call to action button to take people to go purchase their season tickets. And the result that we saw was number one, we identified a 13% response rate in the direct mail piece, which in terms of a typical mail response rates, especially for university marketing, you know, three to five percent is considered really good. So 13% was really beyond any of our expectations in terms of performance. And then the second and more important value was that the entire season was sold out within weeks of that campaign going out. I think that really speaks to the power of that technology. It got the message out. It gave an easy avenue for a call to action and people engaged with it. Awesome. I love that example. I just think through like how that could be such a strong piece for like a membership membership message for a lot of cultural attractions at the beginning of the year. And I didn’t know about that discount. So that’s really interesting as well. But let’s talk a little bit more pricing and implementation here. We already have chatted about how this is a much lower cost maybe compared to something like virtual reality, right? If I’m a market or I’m thinking, okay, I want to start incorporating some of this like is there some price points entry pricing that you can share that’s like what you’ve been thinking of realizing that this could go. Absolutely. In terms of what we do. Yeah. And the first thing I always talk to customers about is, you know, there’s certainly a lot of AR technology on the market. I think there’s a few things you want to look at when you’re making that investment. The number one is the development platform that you’re building it on. I think one of the really cool things that exists today is the ability to build AR experiences without having to be a coder. And that’s through tools called no code creation engines, which blew airspace AR the tool that we use has that in our capabilities. So being able to utilize your designers, your videographers, your marketers, your creative people, not necessarily somebody with a full technical skill set and allow them to have the control of the AR concepts. I think that’s really important. The second is that we want guests to be able to easily access experiences one of the biggest barriers that I saw with the technology over the last 10 years that I’ve been working with it is the way of getting into it. Prior to about five years ago, the only way that you could access an AR experience was through an app you had to download an app and that act of getting somebody to download an app, whether it’s an attractions app or a third party augmented reality app. It is a huge ask for for the everyday consumer. So one of the cool new things that has come to market is web AR and web AR is essentially technology that was deployed through your mobile devices. It’s already on your phones today. It was already installed years ago. And it allows your browsers like Safari Chrome, Firefox Edge to be able to deploy AR experiences. So every experience that we recommend deploying all come through on a web page, which means that you can promote them the same way that you would promote a web page, right? You can promote it on social media through QR code through social media or through a messaging. A lot of different ways to be able to engage. And then the last one of the costs, right? So in terms of the cost of it, you’re going to be looking at two sets of investments. One is the platform, right? For our technology, we look at it somewhere between $2,200 per experience, depending on how many experiences or what type of package that you have. And then the other costs are all of the things that have to be incorporated to make it augmented reality, right? So if it’s an AR hologram or a virtual tour, we might require videography work to be completed. If it’s something like a 3D model, we might have to somebody have to build out that 3D model asset as a file and add the skins. We might have to brand the entire experience to an organization. All of that is services that can either be accomplished by an attraction organization by a marketing department. Or sometimes we have organizations you look to us as the provider of the augmented reality to put that together. So those are costs that also have to be considered as well. We shared some really great examples from some cultural check-tions that you’re working with. So I’m sure if anybody really wants to get an estimate, they can reach out to one of those zoos as well and get a better idea of pricing. But Anna, this has been a great conversation. Why don’t you let everybody listening know how they can get in touch with you? Absolutely. To learn more about Blue Airspace AR, augmented reality, you can contact RICO Marketing Services and that’s at www.RICORICOH-USA.com/marketing-services. Okay, perfect. And then we’ll have all your contact information in the show notes as well. So thank you so much for this conversation. It’s really interesting. Awesome. Thank you guys so much for having me. Thank you for listening to the Marketing Attractions Podcast. If you have a suggestion for a topic or would like to be a guest on the show, please visit our website at MarketingAttractionsPodcast.com [Music] [ No audio ]