Podcast Summary: The Next Innovation
Episode: Bringing Brands to Life With Augmented Reality
Date: September 16, 2025
Host: Samantha Murphy Kelly
Overview
This episode explores how augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are reshaping the way brands and organizations tell their stories and engage users—moving from playful tech gimmicks to powerful, immersive experiences with tangible impact. Featuring innovators at the forefront of spatial storytelling, the discussion delves into how AR and VR transcend entertainment, finding applications in sustainability, education, sports broadcasting, and everyday creativity.
Key Discussion Points and Insights
1. Evolution of Augmented Reality in Daily Life
- Historical Perspective: Samantha Murphy (00:02) recalls the rise of AR through playful mobile experiences like Snapchat filters and Pokémon Go, highlighting how digital layers enhance our physical world.
- “None of these characters were in the real physical world, but they moved and interacted with us so realistically, it was like we could almost touch them. If you recall, this was the global phenomenon of the Pokemon Go mobile game.” — Samantha Murphy (00:51)
- AR Beyond Gaming: Michael Guerin (03:29) observes that most people don’t realize daily social media filters are forms of AR; the barrier is not the technology, but the terminology and seamlessness of experience.
2. Immersive Storytelling for Organizations and Cities
- Case Study: Impazar
- Michael Guerin (04:16) describes launching Impazar to create location-based AR experiences accessible through mobile devices. The aim is authentic, site-specific storytelling, such as visualizing sustainability impacts for companies.
- “You go to a location, you hold up your phone and then the scene appears around you. … So the goal is that you can walk around the experience and the real World is there too.” — Michael Guerin (04:54)
- Grant Thornton Example: Impazar visualized 100,000 single-use coffee cups being saved from landfill, immersing users in a waist-deep pile of AR coffee cups to drive the sustainability message home (06:27).
3. Pushing the Boundaries with Mixed and Extended Reality (XR)
- Research and Positive Impact: Dr. Randall Hill, Institute for Creative Technologies, USC (08:18), outlines 20 years of XR research focusing on training, problem-solving, and behavioral health.
- Notable project: Using VR to help treat PTSD, with immersive scenarios requiring participants to make complex decisions under pressure (09:34).
- “We created these characters, virtual humans that you could have a conversation with… very interactive. It involved early stage AI, virtual humans, and all the elements of immersion that you would expect in a VR system.” — Dr. Randall Hill (10:20)
- Value of Specific Use-Cases: Ben Lang notes that the most successful AR experiences solve concrete problems and are developed around clear visions (11:44).
4. Democratizing AR Creation Tools
- Impazar’s Innovation: The team’s new tool, Raio, lets anyone craft spatial storytelling experiences in minutes—likened to “the Canva for AR” (13:41).
- “If your phone contains a new portal for spatial storytelling, could anyone become a spatial storyteller?” — Samantha Murphy (13:41)
- Volograms and Volumetric Video: Rafael Pajes introduces Volograms, which uses AI-powered volumetric capture to create realistic 3D replicas of people from a single photograph—enabling everyday users to integrate themselves into AR scenes (15:09).
- “We trained a deep learning model… take a photo of you, put it through the pipeline, and the pipeline is going to give me your back, how you look from behind and stuff like that.” — Rafael Pajes (15:52)
5. Spatial Storytelling in Sports Broadcasting
- Breakthroughs: Volograms’ technology powers 3D sports replays; the Dallas Mavericks partnered with ESPN to launch “NBA Courtview,” giving fans immersive, multi-perspective experiences (17:53–18:14).
- Potential: AR/VR brings fans into the heart of the action, revolutionizing how sports are consumed and experienced.
6. Industry Challenges and Opportunities
- Barriers to Scale: Dr. Hill (19:32) notes that high costs and the skill-intensive process of content creation remain obstacles. Funding and consumer adoption are needed to grow the market.
- “The barrier to doing this, one barrier is our own imagination, but also the ability to create the content at scale… one of the challenges is how can we help bring the cost down for creating content.” — Dr. Randall Hill (19:32)
- Early-Stage Struggles: Both Rafael Pajes and Michael Guerin discuss the hurdles of convincing early adopters, securing funding, and building a consumer base in a nascent market (20:54–21:55).
- “In some ways it was a little bit mad because most people hadn't seen or heard of the technology. So it was definitely trying to convince early adopters…” — Michael Guerin (21:55)
7. Beyond Entertainment: Educational and Social Impact
- Dr. Hill encourages leveraging entertainment tools for education and training (23:18).
- “It takes a will to invest in something that has an educational use and not just purely entertainment.” — Dr. Randall Hill (23:18)
- Samantha Murphy points out how AR and VR are aiding doctors, teachers, and manufacturers, as well as sparking joy and meaningful connections in personal and professional contexts (23:42).
8. What’s Next for Spatial Storytelling?
- Accessible Creativity: Ben Lang expresses optimism for AR as an everyday enhancement tool, not just a novelty (24:04).
- Mature Experiences: Michael Guerin stresses the importance of meaningful, impactful experiences, moving beyond gimmicks (24:40).
- AI and Simplicity: Rafael Pajes foresees even simpler content creation, where typing or providing a photo is enough (24:54).
Memorable Quotes & Notable Moments
- “Looking down at our phones as we're walking down the street will seem like the Dark Ages.”
— Ben Lang (02:41) - “AR VR are past the hype. Now they are productively being used in many industries outside of just gaming and entertainment.”
— Rafael Pajes (02:47) - “We wanted to have a solution that anyone with a phone could do. So just anyone, whatever they are in the world, can access the technology without the need of having to travel…”
— Rafael Pajes (15:52) - “There's this very vast new world of possibilities that's starting to open up as we move toward improved augmented reality functionality.”
— Ben Lang (24:04)
Important Timestamps
| Timestamp | Topic/Segment | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:02 | Introduction to AR origins (Snapchat filters, Pokémon Go) | | 03:29 | Michael Guerin on AR as a daily tool | | 06:27 | Impazar’s coffee cup sustainability experience | | 08:18 | Dr. Randall Hill on positive XR and VR use cases | | 09:34 | Mission rehearsal VR for behavioral health | | 11:44 | Specific use cases make AR “stick" (Ben Lang) | | 13:41 | Democratizing AR—Raio as “Canva for AR” | | 15:09 | Volograms: AI 3D capture for everyone | | 17:53 | Volumetric video in sports broadcasting | | 19:32 | The challenge of scaling content creation (Dr. Hill) | | 21:55 | Early adopter challenges for AR startups | | 23:18 | AR/VR’s potential in education and social impact | | 24:54 | Future of AR as simple, intuitive creation (Pajes) |
Tone & Takeaways
The discussion is both optimistic and realistic—celebrating technological leaps while openly acknowledging the hurdles of cost, scalability, and mainstream adoption. Experts agree that spatial storytelling’s promise lies in its power to engage, educate, and inspire, blurring boundaries between the digital and physical worlds. Brands and individuals alike are now empowered, not just to consume immersive experiences, but to create them—turning AR and VR into tools for both business impact and human connection.