Dive Brief:
- Porsche teamed with Zerolight and Ultrahaptics to create an interactive, haptic advertising format, per a news release. The technology, intended for public media installations and retail, will first be available at the Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 28-29, where attendees can customize a Porsche Cayenne Turbo and interact with the model through mid-air haptic cues, which are delivered through bare hands and don't require gloves.
- Dealers can use the format for digital product placements and to create a digital showroom that allows them to engage with consumers beyond dealerships or websites. Users demoing the technology can scan a QR code to create a dedicated microsite with rich media content focused on their personalized vehicle and an "intelligent car configurator" that Porsche developed with Zerolight, which can be viewed below.
- Porsche's advertisement was made using a series of videos that allow users to switch between several different car configurations. The videos were produced in a batch, in under 24 hours, as a more economic alternative to straightforward, static advertising, per the release.
Dive Insight:
In combining visualization and haptics — or, technology that's largely driven by touch — Porsche can better customize digital product placement and potentially create a more memorable, personalized browsing experience.
More brands are finding success by including haptic elements into their advertising, including BMW, Royal Caribbean and Arbys, according to research from Interpublic's Media Lab and Magna. The groups found that standard versions of ads reached a 37% level of happiness and 30% excitement, while haptic versions produced levels of 44% happiness and 38% excitement.
Immersive and interactive experiences continue to resonate with consumers, and many marketers — especially those with strong retail presences — are tapping bleeding edge technology like haptics and virtual reality to deliver them. Porsche's new format might step beyond feeling like a novelty by focusing on personalization, including by letting mobile users scan QR codes to set up their own microsites.
