Augmented reality can be a purchase trigger for brands.
Crédits photos : Maxence Rouillet / Smart Bottle
Augmented reality technology is more and more used in the marketing field. For many brands, it’s a way to extend the customer experience, and it sometimes event help trigger a purchase. Marie-Pierre Verrier, from the Laval Institute of Arts et Métiers, is presenting a student augmented reality project for the French company Smart Bottle, specialized in wine.
In 2019, on this blog pages, the startup from Bordeaux Smart Bottle was already put in the spotlight. It developed a augmented reality application for smartphone with which we can learn more about the aromatic notes, the grape variety and the medal-winning history of a wine bottle by scanning it. We could even push curiosity and virtually visit the winegrower’s vineyard and then understand the techniques and know-how of bottling.
Augmented reality and 3D animation at the service of wine
But Smart Bottle didn’t stop there. The startup continues its quest for innovation to modernise the communication between wine producers and customers. In 2021, 3D animations appeared on the application. They contextualize and enhance the interactive communication with the consumer. Maxence Rouillet, Conceptor / Developer at the Laval Virtual Center, in internship at Smart Bottle, created 3D vineyard environments to try to immerse the bottle in its initial cocoon.
On a project, listening to wine producers who want to transmit their image through their product, Maxence, through his drawings or those of the clients’ illustrators, becomes the designer of 3D characters that give body, not to the wine, but to the bottle. For example, we can see an octopus hanging on the side of a bottle. It moves slightly and shoots an ink jet at the user’s phone.
The various methods of 3D animation such as Key Framing on 3DSmax allow him to build a sequence of positions of an object and motion capture allows him to record, thanks to sensors, the movements of a human being. Once this technique has been mastered, it is also necessary to master aesthetics and good taste, because the key is to trigger a purchase. This is not an easy challenge to take up, when we know that for some people an octopus causes fear or disgust. The cartoon aspect of animals is often a good technique.
When it is a question of helping the producers to remain authentic on the one hand and to direct at best the consumer for an enlightened choice, Smart Bottle will be there, with the service, of the development of the Dive Bottle!
