As technology evolves, brands world over continue to recognize and harness the power and capabilities of Augmented Reality (AR) Lenses, which allow consumers to enhance the world around them.

These emerging technologies are providing utility and informing consumers about the brand, above and beyond pre-roll video ads, while also enabling brands to build deeper, more personalized connections with consumers.

According to a recent study by MAGNA Media Trials and Snap Inc, AR ads play a unique role in each phase of the purchase journey – marketers shouldn’t view AR as an add-on but an always-on tool to build and amplify brand messages.

Consumers found AR ads to be significantly more informative (+5% more than Pre-roll ads) and more useful (+6%) than traditional pre-roll ads.

The report was released as HCL Technologies (HCL), a global technology company, launched a world-class digital engagement platform, X by HCL Technologies (X), which enables brands to improve consumer loyalty and drive conversions through personalized omnichannel marketing.

And as technology continues to disrupt how brands operate, Kinesso, IPG’s connected intelligence company, has debuted proprietary research designed to help brands maintain their connections with people in a rapidly changing advertising ecosystem.

The report, titled “A Connected Approach to the Disconnected Identity Ecosystem,” explores how marketers can respond to disruptions to digital advertising, including technology innovations, the deprecation of the third-party cookie, and evolving privacy regulations.

On the campaign beat, ELLE UK and Nike have collaborated on a multi-platform partnership, spanning print, digital and video, to mark England hosting the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 Championship, which begins on 6 July, and recognises those driving change both on and off the pitch.

The campaign, which celebrates football at all levels, is brought to life with three limited-edition ELLE UK covers featuring inspiring women who are leading change in the sport to create the future of football, both on and off the pitch

Heineken is addressing the growing work life imbalance with The Closer, an outlandish high-tech bottle opener that immediately shuts all work applications when a bottle of Heineken is opened with it.

Dramatized in a campaign film as the antidote to the increasing demands of our always-on work culture, The Closer bottle opener itself is a satirical symbol for the power every worker has to close down at the end of the day.

At the same time, Retail data and intelligence platform provider SoundCommerce has announced the newest release of SoundCommerce Campaign – acquisition marketing technology that makes it easy for retail brand marketers to manage paid media campaigns to advance fully-burdened profitability goals.

And in partnerships, Nielsen, a global player in audience measurement, data and analytics, has been selected to participate in TikTok’s Media Mix Modelling Program.

TikTok’s program brings together leaders in media mix model marketing measurement to drive reporting consistency and quality for advertisers globally, allowing advertisers to gain more insights into the impact of marketing on the short-form video platform.

Havas Media Group has announced a global partnership with Lumen Research that will create bespoke tools to plan, measure, buy and optimize attention.

This offering, the first of its kind to be integrated on a global scale, augments Havas Media Group’s Media Experience (Mx) operating system with Lumen Research’s proprietary attention data, harnessing the world’s largest and longest-lasting continuous eye tracking panels to estimate the consumer attention generated by each media impression.

Yahoo and Hivestack, the global, independent programmatic digital out of home (DOOH) ad tech company, have announced a strategic global partnership to connect their industry-leading technologies, and enable premium, programmatic DOOH cross-channel media campaigns on a global scale.

INEO Tech Corp. , the innovative developer and operator of the INEO Media Network, a digital advertising and analytics solution for retailers, has announced a partnership with Western Media Group to market INEO's digital-out-of-home advertising inventory to brands and advertisers.

Elsewhere, Bayer has signed the Zero Hunger Private Sector Pledge with a 160 million U.S. dollar commitment dedicated to help end global hunger.

The Pledge, in the context of the UN Food Systems Summit of 2021 and as a part of the Summit’s Zero Hunger Coalition, recognizes the need for governments and the private sector to work together to end food scarcity.

Bob Koigi is an editor at Marketing Report EU

www.marketingreport.eu