Dive Brief:
- Lumyer, an audio and video enhancement app, partnered with Universal Studios for an AR-driven campaign promoting the upcoming movie Sing, per a press release.
- The app allows fans to add music and AR video effects including characters from the film to their photos and videos.
- The Lumyer app has more than 10 million downloads and there have been more than 30 million "Lumys" created in the company’s first year. Earlier this month, the app was named number two on Google Play’s “Top Trending Apps of 2016.”
Dive Insight:
The latest campaign from Lumyer and Universal — they also worked together for the film Ouija earlier in the year — combines two popular app activities: music and selfies. Young consumers are flocking to services like the karaoke-esque Musical.ly and AR-integrated video messenger Snapchat, so incorporating elements of both into one space is a smart move by Lumyer.
App marketing and augmented reality are areas ripe for experimentation at the moment. After the wild — if short-lived — success of Pokemon Go this summer, marketers got the general blueprint of how the technology can be leveraged to reach an engaged fanbase and tie the online and offline consumer experience.
Next year might be a breakout year for AR as more marketers become willing to test the waters like Lumyer and Universal are doing. The Sing campaign is the latest example of tying a social app to film promotions. Disney and Twitter also recently teamed up ahead of the release of Rouge One: A Star Wars Story to display fan tweets in theater lobbies.