5 AR Instagram Games for Brand Marketing

Instagram is a world-famous app for posting ridiculously aesthetic pictures and promoting yourself, your lifestyle, or your brand to a wide audience. While some people use Instagram for personal needs, such as staying in touch with friends and family, posting pictures of their meals, travels, babies, and similar, others aim to become Instagram influencers. Brands and businesses are already familiar with Instagram advertising and the almost unlimited potential this app holds in terms of marketing.

However, when it comes to Instagram marketing (and other forms of digital marketing), there is such a thing as ad clutter or too many ads. According to Forbes statistics, an average person sees between 4,000 and 10,000 ads per day. Most of these ads are digital – an ad in the middle of a YouTube clip, embedded in your social media feeds, ads popping up left and right on the websites you visit. With such an abundance of advertising, it has become increasingly difficult for brands to push through and leave a lasting impression on their target audience.

Innovation in advertising is essential for staying ahead of the curve. You want your brand to stand out, be noticeable, and your audience to engage with what you’re offering. You don’t want them to just scroll past your ad without even registering it.

Enter AR Instagram marketing.

AR, as you may know, stands for ‘augmented reality’. It is an interactive experience where you use a device (a phone or a tablet) to enhance the real world. One of the most renowned examples of AR is Pokemon Go, the game where you see animated Pokemon in the real world through the use of your phone.

Recently, Facebook launched Spark AR, an augmented-reality-focused addition to all Facebook-owned applications, including Instagram. Spark AR allows you to create AR effects on Instagram, meaning enhance real pictures with otherworldly effects. Not only that, but Spark AR also opens the door to creating marketing AR Instagram games that will draw the attention of the user and make them engage with the brand.

The Snickers Hungry Games are played on Instagram stories. They introduce you to three characters and urge you to tap and hold the screen so that these characters don’t get hungry. If they do, all hell breaks loose.

The goal of the game is to lose, technically. Once you can no longer hold your finger on the screen, the hungry character goes berserk, but you win a Snickers bar! It’s a great way to connect the game to the real-life brand.

AirAsia created an effect that lets you pilot their plane and collect coins in the sky. If you run into the clouds, you’re toast! This game is great for raising brand awareness for AirAsia, but also for killing time when you have nothing better to do.

Puma India teamed up with a group of developers to create a Rider filter to celebrate its colorful new but retro collection of sneakers. The filter was popularized by Indian Instagram influencers, and then Puma followed it up with an addictive pinball-style game on Instagram. You even got a chance to win new Puma Rider merch by excelling at the game!

American DJ and producer of awesome music, Marshmello, came up with a simple game that drove people to his brand. To the electronic tunes of Marshmello’s music, you could spend time catching virtual marshmallows with your mouth on Instagram stories.

The game was an instant success, garnering over 3.2 million people who engaged with it in the first 48 hours alone. There’s no denying the pull of such easy, uncomplicated games when it comes to increasing brand awareness.

While their originality is up for debate, Ikea eagerly hopped on the ‘Which X Are You’ trend on Instagram and created their ‘Which Ikea icon are you?’ filter. While not the most imaginative, this filter still brought attention to the brand and was successful in informing their target audience of what pieces of furniture they offer and which of them suit each person’s tastes.