By Dominic Collins, CEO & Co-founder, Darabase

Innovative companies are increasingly leveraging iconic properties as dynamic virtual billboards. From Game of Thrones placing a dragon on the Flat Iron building in New York, to Louis Vuitton placing Yayoi Kusama’s polka dots motif on the Eiffel Tower, these examples highlight a growing trend: the use of augmented reality (AR) to transform physical structures into captivating advertising platforms. Additionally, the use of CGI graphics to create “Faux Out of Home” content, such as North Face jackets adorning Big Ben, to Maybelline mascara featured on London buses, show how iconic properties are being used, sometimes without permission or payment, to promote brands for social media marketing video content.
This trend is gaining traction for its ability to engage audiences and generate significant public relations and social media buzz.
The Value Proposition of Virtual Content for Asset Owners
For businesses with physical locations, using your building for AR content gives you a strategic advantage. A 2021 study by Ericsson Emodo revealed that 61% of users found AR advertising more engaging than traditional 2D advertisements. By presenting virtual content to passers-by, businesses can maximise the relevance and impact of their marketing efforts, surpassing the effectiveness of traditional social media posts or display ads.
Retailers can use it as a virtual storefront to showcase their marketing content to attract customers, hoteliers can promote their amenities, and corporate offices can communicate their brand identity. Developers too can use AR to visualise future developments, both for community engagement as well as in the sales and marketing process. The strategic use of AR can significantly enhance foot traffic and customer engagement.
“Creating experiences beyond shopping is increasingly important across our assets. With augmented reality and Darabase the opportunities are endless, allowing us to enliven a quiet area and provide entertainment whilst driving footfall and engagement.”
Angus Stenhouse, Senior Asset Manager, abrdn (See the abrdn case study)
Cost-Effective and Efficient Advertising Solutions
Transforming your building into a virtual billboard is both cost-effective and efficient. AR installations eliminate the need for capital expenditure on physical upgrades, bypass physical planning permissions, and can be deployed rapidly and cost effectively, using no-code AR software. This ease of implementation makes AR an attractive option for businesses seeking to optimise their marketing budgets and timelines.
Your asset can become a powerful digital marketing channel, turning storefronts, office entrances, or development hoardings into interactive digital canvases that communicate directly with the audience at the moment they are most receptive.
Augmented Reality: A Mainstream Marketing Channel
AR has evolved beyond being a novelty. It is now a proven, highly engaging digital channel capable of creating diverse virtual experiences, from animated 3D characters to interactive images and videos. Modern AR technology enables the display of virtual content on buildings worldwide, effectively turning every structure into a potential content canvas and advertising space.
The simplest AR method involves web-based technology, using QR codes displayed on buildings or windows. Passers-by can scan these codes with their smartphones to access the content. More advanced solutions use location-based AR, where apps recognize buildings and display virtual content directly, removing the need for QR codes. This seamless integration of virtual and real-world elements enhances the immediacy and contextual relevance of the advertising.
For outdoor media today, existing laws, regulations and best practice mean you need the asset owner’s permission to display physical advertising in their locations.
This is also the case for AR content layered on the physical world and is increasingly required where you reproduce a recognisable building inside a virtual metaverse, just like how stadiums are licensed to appear in sports console games.
As wearable technology, such as smart glasses and VR devices develop and become ever more prevalent, AR content is increasingly being used by brands in outdoor locations. Darabase has established a new set of property rights, what we call Property Digital Rights (PDRs). Similar to air or mineral rights, PDRs create incremental asset value for a property. They do this by allowing owners and managers to control and monetise the “digital canvas” that maps to their physical assets.
Asset owners can create incremental value and earn revenue by allowing AR/VR advertising to be displayed on the asset and select which content categories are enabled/disabled. Equally, where the asset owner doesn’t wish to display content, this is controlled by the owner via the Darabase platform.
Getting Started
For a detailed exploration of the legal considerations of AR advertising, take a look at the Darabase white paper, authored with legal experts RPC, which you can find here. To find out more about how to recognise the asset value and revenue in your accounts, download Darabase’s comprehensive white paper, authored by consultancy and legal experts at Kroll and Harris & Trotter, here.
If you own or lease an asset, consider registering it as a virtual billboard to create a valuable new revenue stream and marketing channel and connect with your audience in innovative and impactful ways. You’ll also be able to stay completely in control of the content that appears. Contact Darabase today to discover how augmented reality content can help you enhance and monetise your existing assets.