6 recommended tips brands must know to make a successful AR Filter

Audit your brand to see if you’re ready for an AR filter

Many people might not even know what AR means but have used Snapchat filters. (AR) has become quite popular and helped brands engage with AR customer experiences. We’ve seen countless AR filters and lenses go viral on social media time and time again. Many brands have utilised social media AR experiences to create unique digital content.

Here are some helpful tips that will clear up any questions you might have.

Identify your target audience
Do they use social media?
Set a goal
What are competitors doing?
Don’t copy and paste someone else’s idea
Design for your audience, not yourself

Identify your target audience

Brands be should know who they Serve because your target audience keeps you in business. If you’ve never made a customer persona, this may help.

What do they like?

Knowing their interests and hobbies can help you know more about them. For example, Nike knows its ideal audience is people who like to be active and motivated. They might like basketball, so Nike is aware of the type of content they might want to see.

What do they dislike?

Do you know their pain points or struggles? Being aware of this helps you find solutions that fill in any gaps and solve real-world problems.
How old are they?

Knowing their age group helps understand the type of content they absorb. Young-Mid aged adults may be more likely to be active on social media while older audiences may be less.

What is their Gender?

People of different genders have different interests. They have different pain points and habits like the content they read or view. Even knowing the brands they follow and buy from can help you.

Do they use social media?

Many brands often create filters for an audience that doesn’t even use social media. Leaving them frustrated and disappointed they didn’t achieve their desired results. The best way to avoid this is to audit your audience using this checklist.

Do they use an AR-enabled social media platform?

Snapchat, Facebook/Instagram and Tik-Tok all support augmented reality experiences. They differ in features but have their own AR apps and software for creating AR filters. It’s recommended to start off on Snapchat, Instagram or Facebook.

Are they active on that platform?

There is no point in creating something that no one will even use. For example, if your audience is on LinkedIn it wouldn’t make sense to make a Snapchat Filter. These platforms have completely different crowds. Knowing if your audience is there will help determine if your campaign will be a success.

Are they currently engaging with you on social media?

(Commenting, liking, sharing or tagging you in posts/stories) Engagement is critical for success on social media. That’s because it’s the key factor for successful interactive experiences. Posting content that doesn’t appeal to anyone means you have an unrefined strategy. You should know in real-time the type of engagement you currently have. It may be too soon to introduce AR Filters into your content strategy. It’s best to invest your time into methods other than augmented reality filters.

Set a goal

Now that you’ve identified and audited your audience, you can now set a goal that aligns with your brand. Here are some examples

Increase brand awareness

Social Media is a great way to raise awareness about your brand. It helps you engage and guide your audience onto the next step of your funnel. Aligning your AR filter with current trends can help boost your brand awareness

Create unique challenges for your audience to partake in

This may include a game that prompts your audience to compete against each other. This is a common strategy known for increasing engagement. For example, A 2D side scroller where the user has to jump to collect burgers and avoid obstacles.

Increase engagement with current audience

You may have an audience on socials that you want to nurture and guide through your funnel.

Drive more sales by creating shopping experiences

Many brands have created AR filters that allow users to try before they buy. These filters utilise body tracking and allow for an interactive experience. Which happens to be great for exposure and social proof. This adds an enhanced layer to E-Commerce.

What Are Competitors Doing?

Every brand is in constant competition for its audience’s attention. AR filters can help with capturing attention and making your brand stand out. Studying your competition can help make your filter unique.

Have your competitors used AR Filter marketing before?

Knowing what your industry is means you care about your strategy. You should always be scanning for inspiration and ways to refine your strategy. You may have seen a competitor create an AR filter in the past, but was it actually good? Keep reading on to learn more about this.

How effective do you think their messaging was?

Every campaign should serve a purpose and end goal, but that is sometimes lost in all the noise online.

Ask yourself these 2 questions when reviewing a filter.

What is it that they do?
What action do they want me to take?

Not having a clear purpose and following through with a clear call to action can affect your results.

In what ways could they have improved their filter?

Could the instructions have been a lot clearer? Is the logo a little too blurry and defeats the purpose? Does the filter lag on your phone? Answering these questions will help you nail your concept and design. Improve on all these flaws and you’ve beaten the competition in your campaign.

Don’t Copy And Paste Someone Else’s Idea.

Gucci is Gucci for a reason, and that doesn’t mean what they did will work for you. There are many variables to consider when it comes to the effectiveness of a filter. Audience and branding matter and there is no way to replicate that for every brand.

Study filters you like and use

Have you seen filters that you actually tend to enjoy using time and time again? This is a good sign and something you should consider when it comes to your concepts.

Keep colours and themes consistent with your brand.

There’s nothing worse than a brand that isn’t consistent online. It confuses audiences and derails branding. If your colours a Black and white, focus on limiting yourself to them. Use the same fonts, brand voice, logos etc.

Keep it simple and refine your strategy.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time. Start off with something your basic and go from there. Don’t get too fancy and expect a marvel grade cinematic experience. Good messaging + clear action = results.

Design for your audience, not yourself

We sometimes forget that we should offer value to our audience and not the other way around. Some brands make it all about themselves. They fail to highlight the benefit of their product or service.

Use Community Filters as a source of inspiration

If you have no idea where to start, you may want to look into Spark AR or Lens Studios community filters. There you’ll find some amazing work by talented creators from all over the world. You can even reach out to the creators of your favourite filters.

An AR expert can assist with interactive experiences

Enhance and improve on your initial idea

Experienced designers are great at coming up with ideas that they know will work for you. Trust in the process and review their work. You’ll have a better understanding once you do.

Help you identify trends and give insight.

An expert would know what is currently trending and what isn’t. Avoid trying to find what works and ask for their advice.

Avoid Stress and save time

A majority of designers use both Spark AR studio and Lens Studio every day and have a ton of experience. These programs can be confusing to beginners, especially brands. So an AR designer can guide you through the process.

Save time and let us design and launch your AR Filter.

You can follow our guide or save yourself some time by letting us handle everything. Designing successful AR Filters starts with understanding your brand and audience.

We are an AR filter agency in Sydney that offers AR Filter solutions to frustrated brands. Our clients include Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, Dixie D’Amelio and more!

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6 Recommended Tips Brands Must Know To Make A Successful AR Filter