Cincinnati -- The latest installment in the ongoing razor battle is also the biggest product launch in the Gillette brand's history -- and Procter & Gamble Co. is flooding stores with high-tech, interactive retail displays as well as launching a full arsenal of digital path-to-purchase initiatives, sampling, TV, print and more.
For a best-in-class example of using augmented reality (or AR) technology at retail, the majority of experts interviewed for this article pointed to the Lego Group.
In that example, pictured at right, shoppers aim a Lego toy package at a kiosk that has a video camera and screen built into it. The shopper and the package appear on the screen, which triggers the AR software to recognize a code on the box and overlay a virtual, 3-D animation of the toy onto the box the shopper is holding. Lego launched close to 50 of the kiosks in its stores in Germany, the U.K. and the U.S.
Each year, event marketing takes on greater significance. Though it remains composed of traditional PR methods, such as mobile tours and sampling, the practice has been elevated to a science and been given a loftier name: experiential marketing.