Static selling to an audience is not enough anymore. In fact, it could be considered downright boring. Today’s audience wants to get into the action and participate. Winning over customers requires creating an engaging, interactive experience where the brand and customer reality intersect. And that’s how Nabisco’s Oreo, Trident, and Ritz brands, millions of screaming teenyboppers, and the group One Direction collide.

Packaging enabled with Augmented reality gives customers access to content such as voicemails from band members and a cyber-photo booth where fans can create images of themselves with One Direction, allowing them to be truly engaged from point-of-sale to in-home to in-concert, says Stephen Chriss, director of US media and consumer engagement at Mondelēz International, the owner of all three brands.

So how can small businesses use augmented reality? How about an app from your corner bakery that lets you virtually design a party table that rocks your kid’s birthday or one from your local mechanic that lets you go inside your car’s engine to see what’s getting fixed? What’s your idea to help customers engage and interact with your business?

“Reality leaves a lot to the imagination”  John Lennon