Verizon's media and online business Verizon Media announced it will add augmented reality (AR) features to its native Moments advertising format for businesses. Advertisers will be able to make AR ads on Moments that allow consumers to interact with products in a 3D environment overlaid on the real world via a phone's camera and screen.
The Moments AR integration follows Verizon's initial debut of AR on Yahoo Mail, which the company says led to unprecedented user engagement. Advertising makes up a small and shrinking part of the telecom's revenue: Verizon Media's revenue fell almost 3% year-over-year (YoY) to $1.8 billion in Q2 2019. To reverse this trend, the company is looking to reinforce the growing segments of the business with AR — Verizon said gains in its native and mobile ads during Q2 2019 were offset by declines in desktop advertising.
Almost 69 million US consumers (over 20% of the US population) are expected to engage with AR at least once per month in 2019, up from just under 60 million in 2018, according to eMarketer.
See the full story here: https://www.businessinsider.com/verizon-testing-augmented-reality-ads-to-boost-revenue-2019-9