Augmented reality in construction and development: How AR can build support for your project

It’s a persistent challenge for real estate developers and capital campaign fundraisers: how do you build support for something you’re trying to build? We’ve covered how AR can help fundraisers, and in this article, we’ll talk about how you can build support for your real estate development before you break ground.

Architectural renderings and fly-through videos are two popular tools used to help potential investors understand a project before it’s built. But watching a video is still a passive action. We think it’s time to reimagine these fundraising and development efforts with the addition of augmented reality.

Augmented reality makes your building project more real

Imagine using a tablet to show your proposed residential building construct itself on a conference room table. Envision your donor using a portal on her phone to step into your future hospital operating theater.

This is the kind of wow factor that turns skeptics into supporters for your building project. You’re allowing your audience to more actively experience the project by moving around it and through it — instead of passively watching a video or viewing a 2D rendering. It’s a more realistic realization of your vision that helps your supporters make it their own.

Augmented reality is only a step removed from your current tools

The architectural renderings and CAD models already created for most projects are the perfect building blocks for an AR experience. These textured, dimensional tools can be turned into animated, interactive AR more quickly and easily than you think.

And once you create your augmented reality experiences, they can be deployed almost anywhere.

AR makes your fundraising efforts more mobile and portable

The suggestions above are just two real possibilities to use AR to recruit capital more effectively. Not only are they more interactive, they’re also more portable and shareable.

Augmented reality experiences are accessible on all modern mobile devices. Portals and tabletop models can even be deployed through Facebook and Instagram as content or AR ads. Now your fundraising efforts don’t have to wait for the big meeting. They can happen during a chance encounter at an event, through an online remote session or even on social channels. It’s a sea change from the old-school approach of boardrooms and handshakes that will set your project apart from other organizations competing for your supporters’ attention.

Ask an expert how to get your AR effort out of the ground

At Starmark we’ve created AR experiences for convention centers, major airports and our own events. We were one of the first agencies to run AR ads, and we’ve written about what we’ve learned in the South Florida Business Journal.

Our team of experts sees a promising future for augmented reality in real estate and fundraising, so contact us for tips on how you can get started. And for a complete walkthrough of everything to consider when jumping into AR, check out overview — Sell that first augmented reality project: Our 8-step guide to getting it done and getting promoted.