Poplar Studio have become industry leaders with a new collaborative augmented reality (AR) platform—the first of its kind—to build an ecosystem for pairing brands with content creators for AR campaigns.
XR Today spoke to David Ripert, Co-Founder and CEO at Poplar Studio and UK Chapter President of the VR/AR Association, about the rise of his new VR/AR firm.
David has over 20 years of experience in media, previously working with Hollywood as well as companies such as Netflix, YouTube, and Google.
But Mr Ripert began working passionately with independent content creators across various platforms prior to taking these ambitions to Poplar’s revolutionary AR campaigns.
Mr Ripert said he saw “the whole video industry go from traditional film production cycles, to videos on your Iphone that can make you money on social media.”
While at YouTube, David gained valuable experience in several VR projects, including with the Gorillaz “Saturnz Barz” 360 degree immersive music video.
The Democratisation of AR creation
Supporting independent creators is key to Poplar’s success, offering a creative ecosystem to back both content creators and brands and giving the two parties a bridge to meet in the middle.
David and his team at Poplar Studio understand not everyone has access to AR development kits and helps connect people interested in the technology that do not have the resources to approach it.
A plethora of creators are joining Poplar and the online creative space has become more than just a production studio, but a learning platform for brands and content creators along with providing project management and cloud services.
He added:
“Poplar Studio is a platform that would enable brands and companies to create AR experiences, affordably, simply, and quickly. I was going to do that by working directly with those content creators, because, I believe right now that it’s quite complex and restricted to people who have had development skills, who are engineers etc. And I think that’ll get democratised in the future and we want to be part of that movement”
Beneficial to all parties, the matchmaking between brands and developers is key in creating Poplar’s effective ecosystem.
The studio has developed many case studies of impressive AR experiences, but the key to these achievements is helping brands understand the success AR can bring them.
Ripert explained the company worked with the heads of innovation, marketing managers, producers, social media producers, and “all kinds of people within brands and agencies”.
He said: “Exposing them more to what AR is and providing a lot of case studies and metrics, which is really important when you work with corporates and shows you have demonstrable success metrics.”
What is Poplar’s Briefing Process?
Briefing is a five-step process where creators apply to AR assessments from big brands that match their skill set, and if successful, go on to collaborate with the brand through Poplar’s online work platform.
Mr Ripert explained the process further, adding:
“We have [content creators] upload any examples of work and link back to their portfolio, which can demonstrate what they’ve done before. Also, we have a certification program, for example, Snapchat, SparkAR, or WebAR, where we tier them along different skill levels to see if they can accurately complete a piece of work”
Brands also go through a briefing process where Poplar provides additional education in AR for those wishing to use the technology to its fullest potential.
According to his figures, Ripert explained brands that used AR to allow consumers to visualise products at home could boost conversion sales “50 to 200 percent higher”.
Brands such as Disney and Nestle also used Poplar to create engaging campaigns across social spaces.
He told XR Today: “With Nestle, we had a 3D Felix the Cat that you could place in your apartment using your mobile phone, where you can interact with it and take pictures or videos with your friends. That was 30 seconds plus of play time for consumers and actually more than Nestle got with their video ads.”
He concluded that his studio believed in AR and its potential rise in the future, adding it would “disrupt every sector out there” and was very hopepful to see how the Poplar community would grow.
The community of creators and brands at Poplar only grows day by day. Anyone with an interest in AR can sign up here to gain access to the Poplar dashboard and begin applying for briefs.
