Dive Brief:

• Honda is sending a personalized augmented reality (AR) holiday card, the “Ultimate Get Well Card,” to pediatric patients at the Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) and the full effort includes a donation to the institution of up to $100,000, according to a press release.
• The messages in the AR card were crowd-sourced from a video the carmaker released in September asking for people to share get well wishes on Facebook and Instagram. The card includes hundreds of those messages as well as personalized videos from hospital staff.
• An iPad in a custom-designed holder brings the messages to life and triggers a wintery augmented reality experience inside one CHOC room. 

Dive Insight:

AR is still a relatively new technology for marketers, but interest is growing among both brands and consumers because of how the technology can create immersive experiences that bridge the offline and online worlds. In Honda's case, its marketing team is trying out ideas using augmented reality tech with a heartwarming message that supports its annual Happy Honda Days promotional event. For AR to move beyond the experimental stage and become a meaningful tactic, marketers need to set objectives, focus on how the tech can overcome consumers' behavioral barriers and think about how to drive use of the technology throughout the customer journey. 

The AR landscape is evolving quickly, meaning marketers will need to pay attention to the various options for going to market. Google recently shut down its Tango AR platform to focus on the easier-to-use ARCore. This put Google in direct competition with Apple's ARKit. Facebook recently opened its AR content studio to all creators while Snapchat launched a content studio to help brands create experiences. 

About the high-tech holiday card, sending warm wishes is one of the best holiday traditions and the AR messages should brighten the lives of the young patients at CHOC, said Susie Rossick, assistant vice president, Honda Marketing, in a statement.The campaign is part of Honda’s longtime support of CHOC and is part of the overall feel-good messaging brands turn to during the holidays as well as tapping into the current trend around positivity marketing.