Try on makeup directly from the YouTube app with AR Beauty Try-On.
Hot on the heels of their recent announcement regarding the introduction of 3D AR models to Google search results, the company revealed this week the arrival of AR Beauty Try-On, a new augmented reality-powered feature for the official YouTube app that allows users to try-on makeup as they watch their favorite beauty vloggers.
Those who have spent at least a couple hours on YouTube can tell you that beauty channels run by vloggers who provide reviews, tips, and inspirations for hair, fashion, and cosmetic, account for a wide portion of YouTube’s 2 billion monthly active users. In an effort to provide a more personalized and effective experience for viewers as well as brands looking to advertise over specific content, AR Beauty Try-On enables viewers to try-on real cosmetic products in real-time without even having to pause the video.
So say you’re watching a popular beauty channel famous for its in-depth reviews of the hottest lipstick brands. If the channel has AR Beauty Try-On activated, instead of seeing a standard banner ad as you would normally, you’d instead be offered a second window in which to try-on a realistic AR rendition of the product being reviewed in the video above.
In a quiet test run conducted earlier this year alongside several prominent Beauty brands, Google claims 30% of viewers activated the augmented advertisements, with a majority spending around 80 seconds trying on AR lipstick. The first company taking part in the campaign will be M·A·C Cosmetics, which will offer a series of AR options when AR Beauty Try-On launches later this summer.
Creators interested in participating can join up using Famebit, YouTube’s branded content platform.
Along with the announcement of AR Beauty Try-On, Google is also introducing Swirl, their first immersive display format designed specifically for mobile web via Display & Video 360 which allows users to interact with advertisements in a variety of new ways. To assist brands with creating Swirl-based interactive advertisements, Google is also introducing a new editor to Google’s 3D platform, Poly. This new addition offers developers more creative control over 3D objects, allowing them to change animation settings, customize backgrounds, and add realistic reflections.
You can head over to Google’s official blog to learn more about these new features.
