These were some well-deserved achievements. After all, the franchise has offered some unforgettable moments that swept the audience off their feet and made them crave more.

The 3D technology captured the imagination of viewers and teleported them to the planet Pandora for a highly immersive and lifelike experience. They felt as if they were there on the planet with Jake Sully, the protagonist.

This is the impact of 3D technology. In fact, with all due credit to the makers, the 3D technology is what contributed a great deal to the Avatar franchise and made it what it is today.

The franchise has made it big right from the early days of 3D movies, and since then it has thrived on its unique proposition of offering an immersive and realistic movie-watching experience smartly embedded in a gripping storyline.

And why not, this is how it should be.  After all, it all boils down to offering the best user experience, and what else can be the best choice other than applying the latest technology and delivering something no one has seen before?

This goes for all other three-dimensional viewing experiences, including 3D Advertisements. 3D advertisements are making a lot of buzz in the market lately for all the right reasons. They offer the best captivating customer experience that engages them on a deeper level, expanding the sales funnel, enhancing conversion rates, and improving business income with the best ROI in the market possible.

This blog comprehensively covers 3D advertising, starting with the basics of 3D technology and going all the way to discussing its benefits for businesses and different platforms, along with some examples at the end. Sounds great? Read on.

What are 3D advertisements?

To understand what a 3D advertisement is, it will be convenient to break it down into 3D and advertisement.

We will not deep dive into the hardcore technical definitions; otherwise, the blog will grow unbearable. We can simply understand the term “3D” or “three dimensions” in this context represents the added layer of depth in the visual experience. So, while watching 3D content, the user not only perceives the two dimensions of length and breadth but also the depth of a scene.

For clarity, contrast it with 2D content like YouTube videos that run in 2D. The user cannot perceive the distance between an object near them and one far away. It does not appear to be coming out of the screen towards you or sinking into it away from you. 

However, if you have watched the movie Avatar in 3D, you can feel that the large whale-like creature is just about to emerge from the screen and hit you. This is what the 3D experience is all about.

Next up is the term “advertisement,” which in simple words means an announcement on a public medium to promote a product, service, event, or anything else. 

Combining the two terms, we get the term “3D advertisement,” which implies a way to raise awareness through three-dimensional visuals offering depth perception to the viewers. The users get a better visual experience with a better understanding and affinity for the product than their traditional 2D counterparts.

More so, the features do not end there. 3D advertisements offer a unique appeal to the customer through real-time interactivity and manipulation. This results in enhanced user engagement with the product, which improves sales conversion through better experience and understanding of the product and the brand.

This added component of 3D advertisements facilitates 360° product visualization, 3D configuration, customization, zoom-in/zoom-out, and much more. 

3D revolution with Augmented Reality

Interestingly, 3D advertisements have found an additional force in the form of Augmented Reality(AR). Brands are collaborating with tech experts like Queppelin to creatively combine both technologies and give a deeply immersive and highly interactive experience to viewers.

With this combo, users can place the product in their own real-world space and interact with it in the real world.

So, while earlier 3D technology allowed users to explore the products through the screen, AR allows them to do all these actions in their living room, in the real world itself. Here, they can even walk around the product to understand it better. It is more like interacting with the real physical product, just virtually.

Additionally, brands get a bag full of tricks with 3D advertisements. They decide the type of experience for their users and include the functionality accordingly. For example, apart from the aforementioned interactive options, brands can even gamify 3D advertisements and cater to the gaming community. It totally boils down to the brands and how they want to engage with their target audience. See the use cases here.

3D advertisements help brands capture and hold the attention of their valuable audiences and create a special place in the mind and the market. We will see the benefits of 3D advertising in the section below, read ahead.

Types of 3D Advertisements Platforms – Web-based 3D Ads & 3D Billboards Ads

There are two major platforms for 3D advertisements: Web-based interactive 3D advertisements and 3D billboard advertising.

Web-based 3D advertising

These advertisements are visible to the audience while they are browsing the web or scrolling through social media. In the first instance, they might look like any other PPC ad; however, the difference lies in the interactivity factor that these ads offer over and above the benefits of existing online advertisements.

They have all the functionality that we discussed above, like 360-degree product visualization, customization, configuration, modification, and any other function the brand offers through these advertisements.

Enabling Augmented Reality (AR) Ads using Vossle

Queppelin has gone one step ahead in this direction. It utilized Vossle’s platform for its one-of-a-kind Inline-AR feature to come up with Augmented Reality advertisements for its clients. These ads are a unique combination of both 3D advertisements and AR technology, making them an incomparable marketing tool in this space.

The ads are embedded within the web page just like any other online ad, and it automatically becomes interactive as soon as the user scrolls through the web page. The only condition is that the user should give the camera permission to run the ad at the time they land on the page.

The ad runs a quick scan of the user’s environment and enables different AR features like Try-on or Markerless AR in the user’s environment itself.

Users can interact with the digital elements, explore, and even try on the products. This engages the users on a much deeper level than any other advertisement format. You can check out the feature here.

3D Billboard

3D Billboards are a type of digital out-of-home advertising that display attention-grabbing, ultrarealistic 3D visuals. With a unique combination of creative content and 3D technology, these billboards captivate viewers through larger-than-life visual treats.

Such an experience not only engages the customer for longer sessions but also gets etched in their memory for a very long time.

There is a long list of big brands that have explored 3D billboards and created a huge impact in the market. This includes Balenciaga, Amazon, and Netflix among others. Our blog here covers the concept of 3D billboards in detail, click here to read.

7 Benefits of 3D Advertising for Businesses

Before diving deep into the benefits, consider these startling facts:

• An average user is exposed to a whopping number of ads per day, somewhere between 4,000 to 10,000. (Source: Forbes ; Red Crow cited by Forbes)
• On top of it,  42.7% of web users employ adblocker. 80% of these use at least one ad-blocking method, 50% use two, and 10% use four.

On the contrary, consider these facts for 3D advertisement

• 3D advertisement results in 6-8 times higher brand engagement than other advertising campaigns.
• 3D ads increase cart additions by 44% and the final sale by 27%.

Going by the statistics, it’s no wonder consumers become averse, or, say, “adlergic” to advertisements over time. They either skip the ad or, if they can’t, they drift off to some other work.

Also, the advertising space is flooded with competition, making capturing consumers’ attention not only difficult but also costly. In 2021, the cost of Facebook ads increased by 47%. Here, we are not even counting the lack of audience trust that develops over time due to over-exertion by the brands.

The only savior in such scenarios is innovation like 3D advertising that helps beat competition, capture audience attention, and, more importantly, win over their trust. Let’s see the benefits in detail.

Brand Differentiation

In today’s highly online world, consumers rely heavily on online searches and reviews to make a purchasing decision. This makes it critical to maintain a unique and distinguishable online presence. 3D advertisements break the monotony of huge ad influx with eye-catching visuals.

They help brands outsmart their competitors, who are utilizing traditional advertisement methods with 2D images and videos.

Consumers resonate with the product on a deeper cognitive level with 3D advertisements and actively participate in your marketing campaign. This lays the foundation for long-term brand engagement and loyalty.

High Brand Engagement

Consumers find 3D ads way more interesting than their non-interactive counterparts. The simple reason for this is that the interactivity quotient beautifully draws active participation from the viewer. It gamifies the experience for the consumers and they stay on the ad unit interacting with the product for longer durations.

Builds Trust through 3D authenticity

Marketing professors Charles Dennis and Raed Algharabat coined the term “3D authenticity.” It refers to a psychological state in which the viewer perceives the 3D virtual object as the actual object. Users consider it a product they will buy and can rely on the brand to provide realistic previews.

High ROAS

ROAS stands for Return On Ad Spend. It is a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) in online and mobile marketing that evaluates the revenue earned against every dollar spent on an ad campaign. Higher ROAS indicates revenue through an increase in sales.  

As 3D ads attract more customer attention, businesses need fewer ad campaigns to fill their sales funnel. This reduces the amount spent on PPC ads and other social media ad campaigns and improves ROAS.

Increases Purchase Intent & Conversion Rate

Purchase intent is the degree of willingness of a customer to buy from a business within a specified period of time. Research shows that the longer the shopper interacts with a product, the more they’ll trust the vendor. In effect, watching a product in 3D increases the chances of a sale by 11 times.

This is due to the fact that 3D advertisements make users appreciate the brand as a value addition. This improves the brand’s image and relationship with the customer. Thus, it encourages more people to buy from the brand in the coming time.

Furthermore, 3D advertisements increase conversion rates, as we saw in the above statistics. Not only do 3D ads increase cart additions by 44% but also the final sale by 27%. Viewing these in the light of high ROAS, we can deduce that brands gain more than they spend on traditional advertising.

Expand Audience base & Website Traffic

While interacting with the product in a 3D advertisement, consumers actively read the advertisement message and curiously click through to the business site. The 3D advertisement ignites curiosity in the viewer, who wants to know more about the product and the brand.

This reflects in improved performance metrics of 3D ads and that of the website such as CTR, engagement, conversions, session duration, website traffic, Search engine ranking, etc.

Reduces Returns

Realistic visualizations of 3D ads help customers make a more informed purchasing decision, which reduces the likelihood of product returns. 

Users can check the functionality of the product through a 3D product demo provided in the advertisement. They get a better idea of the physical dimensions and whether the product fits into their parameters. This increases conversion rates and decreases returns.

Examples of 3D Advertisement

To improve your understanding of 3D advertisements, here are some examples.

3D Foldable Mobile Advertisement

We created an introductory 3D advertisement for a mobile manufacturing company to grab eyeballs for their upcoming product launch. It was a smartphone with a foldable form factor.

The ad starts by showing the fast charging capability with an animation of a cable plugging into a blue-colored mobile and charging it fully at a rapid pace. Then the background changes and the mobile phone simultaneously maneuver to show an ultra-HD display with butterflies coming out of it.

The ad is a smartly planned creative that immersively unveils prominent features of the mobile device, including fast charging, the display, a powerful gaming process, a high-quality camera,  as well as its color variants. Through all this, it creates a deep impact on the ad viewer.

3D Automobile Advertisement

Queppelin created a 3D advertisement for an automobile company. The ad showcases one hero object, i.e., a sports car, going through various adventures. We used Blender to develop a realistic visual with a Ballistic Suspension Rig to replicate the lifelike movements of the car. Then we used render farming services to ensure high-quality rendering.

The content offers astonishing 3D visuals by creating the illusion of a car bursting out of the screen onto the viewer. Experiences like this make the advertisement linger in their minds for longer periods of time.

3D Footwear Advertisement

Queppelin created a footwear advertisement for our client in Singapore using Blender (Cycles) and utilized Render Farm for hyperrealistic CGI. The ad took a straightforward product showcase approach for the animation of one hero object in 3D.

Conclusion – The Future is 3D Content

The rapid development in the field of immersive technologies has opened new avenues for businesses, and 3D advertisements are one of the coolest ones. It engages the users on a deeper level, develops an emotional connection with the audience, and builds trust in the brand. All this is achieved at a much-reduced cost with high ROAS than other traditional advertising methods.

As a result, the businesses reach out to a larger audience in an impactful way, resulting in the expansion and augmentation of the sales funnel. The result is high revenue with much less investment.

Queppelin is one of the leading companies in the field of immersive technology. We have a large team of 3D designers and developers that have worked on top-class projects for the world’s top companies, including those in the Fortune 500. Contact us today to discuss your 3D project and how you can make the most of it.

The post What are 3D Ads? Types, Benefits & Examples of 3D Ads appeared first on Queppelin.

3D Billboards or 3D Anamorphic Billboards are a type of Digital-Out-Of-Home or DOOH Advertising i.e. outdoor and offline advertising channels that employ digital technology. There are many types of DOOH like Digital Billboards, Digital Screens, Mobile Screens, etc. However, 3D Billboards outshine not only DOOH but all other forms of advertising channels.

This is because 3D billboards offer three-dimensional visuals with ultrarealistic content. Such an experience instantly hooks passersby leading to higher engagement.

They offer a perfect blend of entertainment, technology, and marketing catching the imaginations of consumers and businesses alike. Hence, they can easily be considered the most impactful outdoor advertising channel in the current times.

As we saw above, 3D Billboard advertising is a subset of DOOH advertising, which, in turn, is a subset of Out-of-Home or OOH advertising. Therefore, to understand and appreciate the full capabilities of 3D Billboards we first need to understand what are DOOH and OOH. 

Digital-Out-Of-Home Advertising

DOOH is a form of outdoor advertising that conveys promotional messages to customers in digital format. These digital billboards run multimedia ads and are strategically positioned to attract a wide audience.

DOOH advertisements have evolved over the years to become programmatic i.e. the use of automated technology for buying advertising space, as opposed to traditional (often manual) advertising methods.

Combining this with technologies such as geofencing and beacons, vendors have made it possible to track, target, retarget, personalize, attribute and measure ad campaign performance. This makes them an impactful and profitable marketing strategy.

3D Anamorphic Billboards takes advantage of DOOH even further as we will see in the next section. DOOH comes under the larger umbrella of OOH advertising.

Out-of-Home or OOH Advertising

Out-of-home (OOH) is one of the oldest forms of advertising, also known as out-of-home media or outdoor media. Basically, any advertisement done in an outdoor public setting comes under OOH.

Its origin goes back to the late 18th century with the invention of the Lithograph, the duplicator machine to replicate thousands of copies of the same prints. Since then, the OOH formats have expanded from small posters to big 24-sheet billboards. At the same time, the placement evolved from freely available city walls to leased-out public spaces.

Some of its typical examples include traditional non-digital billboards, on-car ads, bus-stop shelters advertising, airport advertisements, shopping center displays, cinemas, and digital place-based screens.

How do 3D Digital Billboards work?

The fact that 3D billboards have been so successful is that users can see the 3D visual content through their bare eyes, no need for 3D glasses or any special device, just pure, natural immersion into a new experience.

To do the trick, 3D billboards lean on our brain’s way of processing visual stimulation, especially depth perception. This helps 3D billboards project 3D visuals directly into the brains of viewers without the intermediation of 3D glasses. So, how does our brain process visuals, and how do 3D Billboards capitalize on them?

Read on.

First, how do humans see 3D World? 

The human brain is the greatest visual processing machine. It receives information on the outside from each eye, or say Binocular cues, and processes them to construct our three-dimensional interpretation of the world. An interesting fact, visual information comprises only 20% of the binocular cues, the rest is composed of other information sources like eye convergence, disparity, etc.

Technically, there are three binocular cues i.e. Stereopsis, Convergence, and Shadow stereopsis. Stereopsis is the major component of our depth perception and 3D billboards make the most out of it. What is Stereopsis?

Stereopsis is the perception of depth developed by our brain using the two different images captured from each of our eyes. This is because our eyes are 6.3 cm apart on average and each of them receives visuals from a different angle. This difference in the two images is called Binocular disparity or Horizontal disparity.  

The visual cortex is the area of the brain that seamlessly fuses these two different images into a single one. This helps us perceive the depth, width, length, and distance between objects. Now let’s see how 3D anamorphic billboards use these phenomena to project 3D visuals that are visible naturally to the onlooker.

How do 3D billboards offer natural 3D views?

3D Anamorphic Billboards use stereopsis to create a perception of depth in the viewer’s mind resulting in 3D visuals. They project two images of the same object taken from two different angles corresponding to the distance between the spectator’s eyes. These images are displayed on specially curved screens for each eye to get a different image as you can see in the image.

However, the work doesn’t end there. In fact, the most important component of the three-dimensional experience is the content. It works in two layers. First, the hyper-realistic larger-than-life visual content just mesmerizes the viewer. Second, and more importantly, it reinforces the 3D immersive experience through the technique of ‘Forced perspective’.

Forced Perspective 

Forced Perspective is a technique to influence human visual perception by creating an optical illusion. In this, the size of the objects in the visuals is manipulated corresponding to the viewpoint of the passersby. This way the creator can force our brain to perceive the depth and distance of an object. 

One popular example of the forced perspective technique is the old movie scenes where creators put a toy dinosaur closer to the camera and actors stand a distance. With the proper use of camera angles and lighting, this setup makes the toy dinosaur appear much larger than the actors. 3D billboards use this technique along with the curved screen to add the third dimension of depth to the visuals. 

This results in captivating visual content that passersby would stop to watch, make a video to share on social media, and remember for a long time. That is why 3D billboards are one of the best ways to promote your business. The next section discusses the advantages the 3D billboard advertising to businesses.

Advantages: What makes 3D Billboards great for Advertising?

3D billboards deliver unparalleled advertising opportunities for businesses. Not only do they help in reaching a valuable audience in mass but do it authoritatively. Businesses showcasing themselves through 3D billboards are considered prestigious by the consumer which greatly contributes to their brand perception leading to higher sales. Let’s see the advantages one by one.

Add a ‘WOW’ factor for campaign virality

As per a study by Nielsen, Out-Of-Home which includes DOOH 3D Billboards is the most effective offline medium when it comes to driving online activity with more than four times per ad dollar spent compared to Television, Radio, and Print.

Also, almost half of adults used the internet to know about the brand after seeing the out-of-home advertisement. Plus, around 4 in 10 either visited the Facebook profile of the business or posted the experience on Facebook. Likewise, 1 in 4 used Instagram and Twitter.

These facts were evident when multiple videos capturing the 3D billboards’ experience broke into social media discourse and went viral overnight.

It thrives on the fact, that when people experience something great that excites them and fill them with admiration, they develop an urges to share it with others.

Through ultrarealistic visuals and well-thought-out content, these billboards add the WOW factor to the campaign and make it effective to an exponential extent.

Produces impact naturally to impress viewers

The content on the 3D billboards is planned by taking the physical environment around the billboards into consideration. The creates keep the lighting, weather, and other environmental actors in mind along with the vantage point of the viewers. This brings the content closer to reality.

Moreover, users see the 3D content on the billboard without needing any special devices or even 3D glasses, this results in a highly convincing and emotionally evoking experience that instantly makes a connection between businesses and consumers.

Build Emotional Connection with audiences

Another major advantage of 3D billboards is the emotional connection. This is because 3D billboards allow businesses to place their brands in the same physical environment in which the consumer is.

The elements in the 3D visuals seem to be interacting with the same environment wherein the passerby is. For example, in one of the 3D billboards, a dreadful creature from the 3D video appeared to break out of the screen and gets lost in the world.

Through such innovative storytelling that merges the 3D content with the surrounding, businesses resonate in consumers’ minds and build a deeper emotional connection with them.

Distraction-free transmission of promotional messages

3D Billboards catch the attention of passersby at a time when they are not distracted by any other media. They are more attentive to visual stimulation and, thus, more receptive to the promotional message.

With smart and creative content planning, 3D billboards flawlessly blend entertainment with promotion. As a result, the onlookers get the best of both worlds and receive the inherent promotional message loud and clear.

Top 5 Examples of 3D Billboard Advertising

Sports Car Advertisement

Queppelin created a 3D advertisement of a sportscar using Blender (Cycles) and Render Farm. As needed, the advertisement was specially designed for a curved screen to create 3D visuals.

The animation was centered around one hero object and contained a complex product showcasing animations and simulations. Additionally, it involved a Realistic Suspension Rig for the car to replicate a life-like movement and simulations such as windshields, glasses, brakes, and light shafts.

The ad shows a sports car emerging from the flow with two robotic arms one on each side. One of the arms grabs a wheel and fixes it into its place. The car descends in a spiraling maneuver and accelerates forwards appearing to be coming out of the screen.

Then it recedes and takes a right turn to pass through an array of light arches that change its color to blue. Then, the car zoom in at full speed and reached its destination showroom. There, it joins other sports cars and takes its place.

The floor spins and the glass-made sliding gate starts closing. However, before the gate could close completely the car breaks through it shattering the glass particle to protrude from the screen.

This is a classic example of how content is the most important component when it comes to utilizing 3D billboards to their full potential.

The content not only offers 3D visuals but also shocks the viewer now and then by creating an illusion of a car bursting out of the screen onto the viewer.

People have never experienced anything like this and it makes the advertisement linger for longer periods in their minds.

Balenciaga & Fortnite

The Spanish luxury fashion house Balenciaga teamed up with Fortnite for a captivating 3D billboard ad campaign that ran across different countries.

The DOOH shows Fortnite’s favorite Doggo wearing fashion-wear from Balenciaga. The ad starts with Doggo reclining and looking at the people nearby. He, then, snaps his finger, and the name Balenciaga lights up on the ceiling. Then he stands up to reach the other side of the screen appearing to come out but suddenly he snaps the finger again and the ad ends with a black screen.

The ad campaigns were also developed on Unreal Engine and utilized the real-time ray tracing and lighting features that made Doggo appear as if he is truly in that location.

Shoe Advertisement on Billboard

One of the footwear advertisements created by Queppelin involved the 3D display of the shoe. The advertisement was developed on Blender (Cycles) and utilized Render Farm for CGI. It ran in Singapore and took a straightforward product showcase approach for its animation.

Centered around one hero object without involving complex characters or simulations, it showed an uncolored sneaker sliding across the display on a conveyer belt. Then, a robot hovers around the shoe projecting a special light beam that colors the shoe blue.

The robot leaves the scene and the shoe flies toward the viewers and rotates. Its color changes to red with colorful confetti bursting into the scene to end the video.

Amazon Prime

Amazon used 3D Billboard to promote Prime Video’s upcoming fantasy series – The Wheel of Time.

The advertisement shows Rosamund Pike, the lead actor, in a live-action 3D immersive visual. Where she appears and then disappears only for a hand to pass across the screen creating a wonderful 3D illusion.

After that, a ghost appears on the screen with a snake slithering from one side to the other side of the screen. The ad is to be displayed on New York Times Square and Cross Shinjuku Vision of Tokyo.

Sky Diver & Drone

Queppelin also created anamorphic 3D visuals for the 3D billboard on Blender(Cycles) and Render Farm. The content involved complex character animations with human rig and animation.

The visual shows a skydiver wearing futuristic gears emerging from a portal. It rolls in the air across the screen to reach the other end and hovers thereby opening its extremities just like a real skydiver does.

Then, we see several drones entering the scene with one of them flying toward the viewer for a wonderful 3D experience.

Get your Immersive 3D Ad Video now

Queppelin is one of the leading companies active in immersive technologies. With more than 12 years of experience in the field and a large team of experienced developers and designers, Queppelin is capable of creating highly impactful 3D advertising videos for your high-yielding campaigns.

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