Why AR Greeting Cards are the Hottest Gift of 2022
Greeting cards are among the best ways to celebrate a loved one’s success or birthday. You may also use them to bid farewell to a colleague. With everything becoming digitized these days, greeting cards too, have joined the race. AR cards have swept over the greeting card market and are giving the conventional ones tough competition.
Although the paper greeting card market was expected to be worth $7.3 billion in 2021, it is likely to decline steeply by the year 2026, thanks to e-cards.
The problem with conventional greeting cards is the lack of innovation or forward-thinking. Moreover, they are not personalized and hence cannot entirely capture an individual’s emotions. That is why they are now a part of a declining market.
In this article, we will discuss why AR greeting cards are the hottest gift of 2022. We will also talk about what they are and how they work.
What Are AR Greeting Cards?
When you think about AR greeting cards, the first question that might pop up is what exactly they are.
Let us break it down with an example.
Assume someone has sent you a birthday card. You simply hover your phone over the card to read it. Voila, a video message featuring your loved one has begun to play on your phone.
How did that happen?
This is because the card that was sent to you is not a traditional greeting card. It was an augmented reality greeting card. In simple words, AR cards are physical cards that have been augmented and enhanced with media content. They have a ‘marker’ on them which you can activate using the QR code scanners on your smartphone.
Remember the animated newspapers and photos in Harry Potter movies? AR cards create the same magical experience. The only difference is that they use technology instead of magic spells!
AR greeting cards, unlike the old and outdated greeting cards, allow a person to share their greeting in an innovative way. This is done by a digitized message or a personalized video. 2D animations are brought to life in a seamless manner, with no visible distinction between the digital and physical world.
In short, it solves the issues of using conventional greeting cards – innovation and personalization.
How Do AR Greeting Cards Work?
AR greeting cards, as the name suggests, make use of the groundbreaking technology of augmented reality. It operates on a marker-based approach, which utilizes real planar images or binary markers. For the AR greeting cards to work, two things are the most important:
AR Marker Physical Card
First, a user will require a physical greeting card bearing the AR marker. A logo, a picture, or even the sender’s own picture can be used as an AR marker. It is crucial to connect the AR marker to the digital message that will be displayed on a smartphone.
As an example, AR apps such as Zapworks and Augment are a great way to create a preferred AR marker as per your wish and link it to digital content.
AR Smartphone Application
Now that an AR marker (with a linked message) has been placed on a greeting card, all you need to do is send it to your loved one.
The recipient will have to install an AR application on their smartphone. Without it, the recipient of the user’s created card will only see a regular card and not one that has been enhanced with AR. This means that without an application, the recipient won’t be able to scan the marker.
However, if you use a web-based AR card maker to create a greeting card, no application is required to read it. They can simply scan the card and follow the webpage URL to view it.
So, when a family member or a friend holds his or her smartphone over the AR greeting physical card, the smartphone’s camera recognizes the image or AR marker inscribed on it. The AR application activates the engrained digital contents in the picture based on the image.
These digital contents may include pre-recorded videography, animation, or live messages to greet your loved one.
What Are the Benefits of AR Greeting Cards?
One of the most common issues that you might face with a conventional greeting card is that you cannot convey your feelings perfectly. AR cards are a fantastic way to combine technology with your own emotions. They offer funny and heartfelt animations that can make your family and friends smile.
Let us look into some of the benefits of AR greeting cards.
- Traditional cards are usually read and then forgotten. However, you can view AR cards several times. Moreover, some applications allow you to modify or update the content even after it has been printed.
- Applying the AR effect on a simple physical greeting card boosts memory and engagement by up to 70%. This is because augmented reality provokes a ‘surprise element’ on the brain, unlike traditional greeting cards.
- Most augmented reality greeting cards are a lot more affordable than traditional ones. Moreover, you can also use them as alternatives to traditional wedding invitations. While a set of 100 wedding invitations may cost you an average of $3000 to $6000, an AR invitation costs as low as $2 per invitation. That is quite a profitable deal, isn’t it?
- AR greeting cards have an interactive element in them which leaves a long-lasting impression on the people you send them to. They can also see your pre-recorded messages whenever they miss you and experience the AR feature all over again. The best part? You never get bored of it.
- With augmented reality greeting cards, you can imbue a single AR greeting card with an infinite number of emotions, sentiments, and expressions. It will feel like you’re talking to someone live, only it will be a recorded message instead of a live conversation.
What Are Other Types of AR Cards?
With advancing technology, augmented reality cards will in no time start replacing the regular physical cards that are in use today. Let us brief you with some of the different areas where AR is applied on cards other than for greeting purposes.
Augmented Reality Flashcards
Flashcards have a similar appearance to the paper cards your child used to play and learn the alphabet with. Unlike traditional flashcards, these cards make use of augmented reality to make them more interactive.
When your children use a smartphone or a tablet to scan the card that has a letter printed on it, they can see a 3D representation of an animal or a fruit beginning with that letter. Furthermore, such types of AR flashcards assist children with learning the alphabet while having fun.
Augmented Reality Business Cards
Augmented reality business cards are similar in size and appearance to your existing card. However, they are enhanced with AR technology. As a result, these business cards are a lot more than just a rectangular piece of paper, because they contain digital content.
You can have an introductory video about yourself via AR business cards. Such cards are enough to leave a good impression on the receiver. The AR business cards are surely the evolution of the next-gen business cards.
Wrapping Up
Now you know why AR cards are the hottest gifts of 2022. With the technological advancements in the field of augmented reality, you can expect a huge revolution in the gifting market in the near future.
Conventional greeting cards are monotonous and predictable. They have been around for a long time and do not make a compelling first impression. AR cards are a welcome shift from that monotony and give the impression that you have taken an effort to make a loved one’s day special.
AR greeting cards are among the most unique methods to greet and express your sentiments to someone you care about; Whether they are a loved one, a family member, or a friend. The AR greeting card is a lifesaver for shy people who struggle to express themselves publicly
Simply scanning the card with your smartphone brings up a virtual greeting on your phone’s screen.
Leverage the benefits of this amazing technology and create magic with a free demo of the Harvest Cards App.