The role of augmented reality games in promoting to millennials

Abstract

Augmented Reality's (AR) development within the business context has attracted both practitioner and academic interest, especially from marketing academics. Using an Augmented Reality game (ARG) employed by a CBD shopping centre in Melbourne as part of a promotional campaign in 2018, this study explores the implications of ARG on millennials' consumer behaviour. The qualitative study involved an ethnographic approach with multiple phases of data collection. After analysing user-generated content on social media pertaining to a shopping centre's marketing campaign involving an AR game (netnography), the researchers participated with millennials involved in the gameplay whilst they were gaming. By engaging in gameplay with the players and collecting the first-hand experience of the players though social media posts, observations, and semi-structured interviews at various points, the researchers remained true to the inductive and discovery-based processes of ethnographic research on millennial ARG gamers. Although most of the respondents opined positively on the novel promotional campaign involving an Augmented Reality Game, the impact of such AR campaigns was questioned by some consumers; especially the players who had prior knowledge of the shopping centre and its retail outlets. Using AR games resulted in an improvement in exposure and foot traffic - which are key benefits to attracting younger consumers to bricks and mortar shopping centres. Currently, traditional bricks and mortar shopping centres might not be positively perceived by millennials since there are a plethora of other retail platforms. However, with innovative promotional methods using AR, they could be coaxed into traditional shopping mediums. From an academic perspective, the negative impact of flow is underexplored in AR and the ethnographic research methodology involving observations for data collection was key in illustrating this under researched topic.