BMW Test Drives Snapchat’s AR Lenses In Their 3D Car Ad

BMW designed a car inside Snapchat’s AR lenses, that almost looks like it’s real and ‘driveable’.

The automobile brand is the first to create a 3D augmented reality kind of a product partnering with Snapchat to roll out the new advert campaign to launch the BMW X2. Last week, the LA based company, Snap Inc, began seeing ads from BMW that link to the AR version of the new car, which lets customers foresee how products look in the real world before buying them.

As part of the project, Snapchat users can customize the augmented-reality version of the car. They can make changes to the colour and move it around to view it from different perspectives. BMW is also running mobile-like video ads within Snapchat, for users to swipe up on them to play with the Lens.

When someone swipes on the ad, it opens the camera and the gold car appears in the frame. A person can then virtually walk around the car and see all its details. Snapchat is calling this a way for people to “interact and play with a 3D augmented reality version of a product before considering buying it”.

People can also play with the details of the vehicle, like changing its color and size.

Jörg Poggenpohl, Global Head of Digital Marketing at BMW says,

We wanted to insert ourselves in an organic way into the Snapchat environment and its users’ world. That is the most meaningful way to address our fans in a style that fits the channel and the target group.

Snapchat was one of an early explorers of AR and they’re selling lenses to brands for more than two years. However, this is the first time an actual product has been transformed for the augmented-reality world in such a dynamic way, according to the company.

BMW is the first brand to launch Snapchat’s AR ads, yet we’re expecting others to make their moves in soon.