At the start of 2020, Hyundai led the Australian automotive category by releasing the first browser-based Augmented Reality (AR) vehicle experience (in the automotive category) in partnership with 8th Wall.
It put the Hyundai Tucson (virtually) into the hands of potential Hyundai customers, wherever they were.
Through this experience, a prospect could see how a Tucson could literally fit into their physical life, configuring the colours, placing it into their driveway or garage (or even their living room), inspecting it from all exterior angles, and booking a test drive if it looked like the Tucson ticked the right boxes.
It was an innovative experience that made Hyundai feel more accessible than other car brands. And little did any of us realise how important this innovation would be in the lead-up to COVID-19, as social distancing and lockdowns made visiting a physical showroom more difficult, if not impossible.
Perhaps it was inevitable, but retail shopping has been disrupted forever because AR shopping is no longer just a novelty. As Deloitte identified in their article Augmented shopping: the quiet revolution, AR has become crucial for brands in delivering one of three key retail experiences:
* Try on (for products that can be worn);
* Try out (for products that can be placed in your environment); and
* Interact (for interactive products).
For Hyundai, the adoption of AR has enabled future customers to build deeper product knowledge while increasing their confidence in making decisions.
Seeing the way forward in a world where social distancing is the norm, Hyundai has now rolled out the AR experience across all their most popular models: Tucson, Kona, Venue, i30 and Santa Fe.
Managing Partner at Orchard, Andrew Antoniou:
“Orchard has always been driven to invent better. For us, this project was about challenging the status quo and seeing how we could reimagine, reinvent, or refresh the automotive shopping experience. And what we’ve produced is just the start of great things to come.”
And what’s next you may ask? Shortly, Hyundai will also offer the AR experience directly in google search results with ‘Google 3D’. So keep an eye out for that!
To experience Hyundai AR for yourself, click here 👇https://experience.hyundai.com.au/tucson
