Market Reality: Google Lens Pairs with L'Oreal, 8th Wall Riffs on Pink Floyd, & Magic Leap Delivers Holiday AR

In his famous 1996 "Content is King" essay, Bill Gates predicted that content is where tech companies will make money on the Internet. The adage clearly holds true in the current phase of augmented reality experience.

For example, Magic Leap, Snapchat, Facebook, Google, 8th Wall, and app developer Immersion produced holiday-themed AR content to appeal to users.

Meanwhile, 8th Wall put its web-based AR platform to work for Sony Records to promote the new Pink Floyd collection, while Google applied its Lens technology to facilitate L'Oreal's AR marketing for its Garnier product line at Walmart.

Finally, a Magic Leap developer showed up Disney by bringing its biggest creative success of the moment into augmented reality.

Magic Leap Closes the Year with Holiday AR Experience

The book is almost closed on 2019, but Magic Leap has one more gift to offer its users before the new decade arrives.

Now appearing in the Magic Leap "Concepts" section of the app store is an experience called Music Box that brings an immersive caroler to anyone using the augmented reality headset.

Read further for more details on the Music Box experience, then continue reading for more holiday-themed AR experiences from Snapchat, Facebook, Google, 8th Wall, and Immersion...

REALITY BITES: Snapchat's expanded Scan feature, found in the new AR Bar UI available for iOS, is starting to yield some brand activity. According to Adweek, Coca-Cola and McDonald's are the first brands to integrate AR experiences into their product packaging.

Sony Taps 8th Wall to Promote Pink Floyd Boxed Set with Web AR

Sony Records saw the opportunity to promote The Later Years, an 18-disc boxed set of CDs that covers Pink Floyd's output from 1987 forward, including 13 hours of unreleased material, with a web-based augmented reality experience.

Built at immersive studio Draw & Code via 8th Wall's web-based AR platform, the AR experience for the boxed set brings album art from the collection into the real world.

Continue reading for more on the Pink Floyd AR experience and how it represents a best-in-class example of AR's impact on the growing AR music marketing space...

REALITY BITES: The crowded enterprise AR software market is about to get another competitor. On Friday, South Korean software maker Maxst announced it will launch its Industrial AR Solution at CES 2020. The platform includes remote support and AR authoring tools.

Magic Leap User Experiment Reveals Disney's Baby Yoda Marketing Fail

The first season of Star Wars: The Mandalorian may be over, but the love for its biggest star, Baby Yoda, persists.

And while Disney wasn't able to get Baby Yoda toys to fans in time for the gift-giving season, there's still at least one way to interact with the adorable youngster in augmented reality.

Keep reading to find out how Baby Yoda made its way to Magic Leap...

REALITY BITES: ThirdEye Gen's X2 smartglasses for enterprise earned a bit more legitimacy as Atheer recently certified the AR wearable for its platform.

Google Lens Assists L'Oreal with AR Marketing

If you're shopping at Walmart, L'Oreal just made that a shade easier when shopping for Garnier hair color products with an assist from Google Lens and the Modiface AR platform.

Walmart customers can use Google Lens — available via the standalone Google Lens app on Android, Google Assistant on Android, or the Google app for iOS — to scan boxes of Nutrisse and Olia products to access the virtual try-on tool.

Read on for more details on how Google Lens brings the virtual try-on experience to Walmart customers and how Google fits in with the robust cosmetics AR marketing landscape...

Every Friday, Next Reality reviews the latest headlines from the financial side of augmented and mixed reality. This weekly Market Reality column covers funding announcements, mergers and acquisitions, market analysis, and the like. Check out previous editions of Market Reality for more news you may have missed.