In this episode of Amplify, Elin Barton talks with Imelda Alejandrino, CEO of AP42, about Augmented Reality.
Imelda, a proven digital strategist and creative director with 25+ years of results-driven success. As the Chief Evangelist behind a top-performing digital team, Imelda combines creative quality, strategic focus, and technology expertise to deliver world-class communications. With a proven track record of leading innovative, creative efforts across all surfaces and channels, including digital, AR, VR, immersive virtual reality, film, retail, packaging, and events, Imelda has worked with major brands such as Accenture, Meta, General Motors, SoCal Edison, Chevron, Pacific Gas & Electric, and Chase Bank.
Imelda is a highly strategic thinker and a leader in breakthrough creative initiatives. Her expertise has been showcased in Oggi, an immersive virtual reality event platform launched in 2020. Oggi has been successfully used for international events, such as Accenture’s, and national events, such as General Motors. With her deep understanding of the metaverse, Imelda is poised to drive continued success in this dynamic and evolving landscape.
Video Transcript
Imelda:
Augmented reality has been around for over 15 years. The difference is that it’s always been an eye candy. AR needs to be weaved back into the business and be profitable or at least affect the bottom line.
Elin:
Hello, and welcome to Amplify the video series where we interview thought leaders about best practices, trends and their experiences in creating engaging campaigns. Today I’m speaking with Imelda Alejandrino, now, the CEO and creative director of AP42. Welcome Imelda.
Imelda:
Hi, Elin, it’s so nice to be here.
Elin:
Yes, I’m excited that we’re getting to do this, we’re gonna have so many interesting things to talk about today. But let’s start out why don’t you just tell me about your company? AP42, and how you first became interested in the field of AR.
Imelda:
Oh my goodness, our interested in technology, I believe in started way back in 2007. There was always a need to figure out how to do this quicker, efficiently and cost effectively. And technology always seems to be a good answer to that. But we got involved with AR ,through,back in 2009 2018, actually. And I had this opportunity with Accenture and she wanted to do something different, something fun. So I thought this would be a great opportunity to do Augmented Reality and it’s been it was so successful. That that said to me, there was an audience that for this. So I pursued it and now we’re doing a lot more stuff and Augmented Reality.
Elin:
Yeah, I mean, it seems like, I may be wrong about this. But it kind of sounds to me like you’re one of the pioneers in the space, as far as marrying the technology with real life applications. Would you say that’s accurate?
Imelda:
Yeah, I think so. And, you know, Augmented Reality has been around for over 15 years. The difference is that it’s always been an eye candy. Right. And the pandemic forced everyone to use technology. And it really made it apparent Well, everybody has been forced to use technology that now something like this is very interesting. But you’re right. I’m always at least two years ahead of everyone. And Accenture is still using that example that I gave them into 2019. And it’s still it’s still viable for them. They’re still using it because it’s the best ROI I’ve had. So the whole point I’m making is that AR needs to we weave back into the business and be profitable or at least affect the bottom line.
Elin:
Yeah, can you give examples of some of the ways you’ve been using it with your clients? You’ve got so many interesting applications that you’ve developed.
Imelda:
Right? So what it started out with my capabilities brochure, which is something that everyone must have. And in looking at all the different capability brochures, how do you break the clutter. And so then that’s what I decided to include Augmented Reality in my capabilities brochure. And as you know, when you walk around the trade show, showing other supplier diversity managers, what you’re made of this really stood out and increased engagement. And since then, that was a permission to keep going.
And other examples are promotional items for my company. We created printed postcards. And in the postcards, there’s a QR code, and you hover over it with your camera. And when you do that, the AR blooms, which means it starts to animate and it engages you and the best part is that it has a button that you can click after the AR occurs and will direct you to a landing page and that landing page could be your ecommerce for us. It was more about AP 42 and our capacity and capabilities with augmented reality. Again, it can be used for training, education, promotion, and increase customer engagement.