We're thrilled to announce that 8th Wall has officially joined the newly formed IAB Augmented Reality Board of Directors, with our VP of Product, Tom Emrich, appointed to the board. As a board member, 8th Wall will help the IAB on its mission to unlock the value of augmented reality for brands by focusing on buyer education, creative best practices and AR ad measurement standards.

During the pandemic, BMW showrooms across the UK had to close for the first time in history. BMW wanted to create a new way for customers to explore the BMW range of Plug-in Hybrids (PHEVs). To do this, it launched its first augmented reality tool in the UK, the BMW Virtual Viewer. 

As part of the launch of two new inoculants in 2020, First Descent AR (Sherpa Marketing) created an ingenious campaign taking growers below the ground of a wheat field showing them exactly how NexusBioAg’s new inoculant works.

Your 8th Wall WebAR projects are about to get even more extraordinary. With Release 16, 8th Wall’s powerful AR Engine has received its biggest upgrade resulting in a 50% improvement in accuracy of our SLAM system and increased frame rate of up to 70% on some devices, more precise Image Targets, and smoother video recording. 8th Wall’s hyper-optimized AR Engine further arms developers, brands and agencies with the ability to develop robust WebAR experiences that are highly performant and interactive. With these performance updates—and a reach of 3.5 billion devices—it’s no wonder that the web is a powerful place for augmented reality.

8th Wall's AR Engine offers developers a world-class SLAM system that runs directly in the browser, powering interactive WebAR experiences. The AR Engine is as fast as it is mighty—reaching desktop benchmarks of 300FPS. 8th Wall's SLAM system needs to be computationally efficient because it must be versatile, capable of running in any major browser on mobile phones, desktops, tablets, and more. For 2021, our engineering team was asked to take a deeper dive into the AR Engine, kicking off new initiatives this year aimed at making this SLAM system better, faster, and more powerful than ever. 

Magnum invited customers to indulge in its first augmented reality experience, a playfully sweet playground inspired by Magnum Cookies and Cream. The WebAR portal experience was created by VALIS in collaboration with VoxEureka and Unilever.  

Japanese clothing brand ANAYI has updated its ecommerce site with a new 3D/AR feature aimed at boosting the confidence of shoppers purchasing online. Select product pages of its Spring and Summer 2021 Collection now feature volumetric videos along with 3D holograms in WebAR of models wearing its latest fashion. 

The world's number one snack brand, Lay's®, has launched a web-based augmented reality experience as part of its global campaign centered on uniting and bringing joy to people around the world through football. The experience lets users pass a virtual football back and forth with 3D rendered avatars of champions from Men's UEFA and UEFA Women's football.

As part of its integrated digital marketing campaign for its flagship product, Captain Morgan has launched an augmented reality experience which requires no app to download. The AR experience, which works in the browser on iOS and Android smartphones, challenges users to crack the combination of a virtual safe to discover that Captain Morgan is “Better than Gold”.

Adidas teamed up with the International Space Station to launch a new limited edition ISS Ultraboost shoe. As part of the promotion, they threw an exclusive party for Finish Line Circle members featuring an out-of-this-world augmented reality experience. The experience, called Goodbye Gravity, was a one-of-a-kind escape room that combined a full physical build out of a spaceship with an augmented reality layer which brought the puzzles within the room to life for guests to solve.