Pretty Big Monster Announces Strong Growth Year in 2021 Due to Growing Demand for Immersive Experiential Marketing Campaigns

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pretty Big Monster, the award-winning full-service immersive digital marketing agency, today announced tremendous growth in 2021 where the company grew 44% year over year, worked on more than 45 projects, including campaigns with notable brands like Disney, Warner Bros., Sony, Amazon, Netflix, NBCUniversal, and Snap.

Current State of Immersive Marketing

While augmented reality (AR) is still nascent, the potential of its technology contributes to its ability to surpass print, online, and television advertisements in terms of capturing attention and spurring engagement. In one report, Interest in leveraging augmented reality and virtual reality in marketing campaigns continues to grow in scale. According to one report, AR can capture people’s attention for over 85 seconds, increase interaction rates by 20 percent, and improve click-through rates to purchase by 33 percent. Another report shows that approximately 1.9 billion people per month will use AR in 2022, and 3 billion devices worldwide are currently AR-enabled.

The appeal for AR and immersive type technology spans a number of reasons, with some noting that the technology will offer a next-level look into the future of marketing and content. Storytelling has always been the foundation of any good marketing strategy and these immersive technologies are providing a new perspective on how content has evolved.

With any new technology, many marketers will find themselves trying to figure out how to integrate immersive experiences, AR and VR into their marketing mix.

Pretty Big Monster Growth

Due to an increased interest in AR and VR, Pretty Big Monster (PBM) saw its business grow by 44%. The trend from marketers to include AR and VR in a brand campaign’s marketing strategy shows just how much it’s changing the marketing landscape.

“When Pretty Big Monster was founded, AR/VR/3D and immersive experiences were rare on all but the most forward-thinking of marketing plans. We made a bet that as paid media opportunities continued to fragment, these tactics would become increasingly effective and sought-after as the efficacy was proven out,” Jason Steinberg, Managing Partner of Pretty Big Monster. “We’re very proud of the creative immersive experiential work and campaigns that we worked on with some of today’s leading brands in consumer and entertainment and the value we are delivering in the form of innovative marketing.”

Steinberg continued, “Given the strong growth we saw in 2021, we are excited for the possibilities of 2022 and to support our clients in their overall marketing objectives as they begin to put more resources to AR, VR campaigns and transitioning them into true-believers.”

Pretty Big Monster has marked the following corporate, customer, and campaign-related milestones during 2021:

Business (Year over Year)

• 44% revenue growth
• 25% increase in the number of projects
• 15% increase in average project margin
  

Featured Sample Pretty Big Monster Immersive Experience Projects

• Dune: Designed to engage and immerse young audiences whose consumer behavior has been shaped by social media, Pretty Big Monster created a site that draws audiences in by placing the talent and characters front and center, inviting the user to scroll deeper into the breathtaking world of Dune.
• Jevon AR Album: Multi-talented international music artist Jevon didn't just embrace audio and visual aesthetics for his debut album drop “Fell In Love In Brasil’, he enlisted a new dimension: Augmented Reality. To bring it to life, PBM translated the two-dimensional album art into 3D experiences and provided app-free access using QuickLooks and WebXR, no downloads required.
• Scream 5 (Scream Mask, Ghostface): The Woodsboro “Ghostface” Killer disguise from the Scream franchise has become an iconic touchstone throughout pop culture. Easily identifiable to fans of the original film, as well as audiences who have never seen a Scream film before. Now fans old and new can step behind the mask of Ghostface and create a chilling message to be shared with all of their friends.
• Godzilla vs Kong: Garnering millions of interactions, the Godzilla vs Kong AR Lens smashed benchmarks for open and sharing rates across all platforms - Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook. Pretty Big Monster was proud to contribute to the global monster success with the highly shareable AR experience that enticed fans to pick sides; #teamgodzilla or #teamkong.

Awards and Accolades

• GOLD winner at the Davey Awards - 2021, Immersive 3D AR experience for Jevon’s ‘Fell in love in Brasil’
  

“The Pretty Big Monster team was incredibly resourceful. Not to mention highly skilled technically, thoughtful about the fan experience, and incredibly creative. I sincerely hope there is another project for us to work on in the near future. Until then I will sing your praises and recommend you to anyone who asks,” said Lisa Saffian, former VP, Content Partnerships, WarnerMedia.

2022 Predictions in Immersive Experience, AR, VR, Metaverse

Pretty Big Monster also announced its predictions for 2022 in the world of immersive experiences, AR, VR, Metaverse, Apple, Google, and includes the following:

• Metaverse hype will come back down to earth. As lofty expectations fail to materialize and the roadblocks become more obvious, we see the metaverse hype taking a hit. The promise of a unified universe where people can interact with both the real world and virtual individuals in digital environments is years away - if it ever materializes. Instead, we should expect a fragmented landscape of meta-islands and poor interoperability for the foreseeable future.
• New wearable ecosystems (glasses/earbuds/phones/fitness devices) will grow in popularity. We believe these products will help create more demand for “Lite AR” applications such as wayfinding, visual search, health, and social interactions, paving the way for augmented-life applications. The colonization of our lives by helper devices has begun to form the digital threads that are now being woven into a quilt of signals which will enhance our lives in surprising ways as they are brought together in AR. With Google, Apple, and Meta all expected to make AR device announcements this year, many of the promises that we’ve been told to expect will start to materialize. Some of the products and features we’ll see include glasses that contain map directions, augmented credit cards that display balance and transaction history at a glance, household management based on graphical user interfaces informed by IoT data, and much more.
• Mobile AR/VR will continue to extend its consumer reach. As advertisers warm to the effectiveness and paid media opportunities continue to decline, mobile AR/VR will continue to grow its reach and adoption. Broadcast and cable TV viewership have been falling in the face of streaming services and paywalls for years. Communicating targeted messages to the masses is becoming ever more difficult as a result. Creating destination content and experiences that audiences seek out will become imperative for brands and advertisers that want to create relationships with audiences. Incredibly sticky, shareable, and replayable, mobile AR/VR activations are ideal for the job.
  

About Pretty Big Monster
Pretty Big Monster is an award-winning full-service immersive digital marketing agency with capabilities including AR, VR, Apps, Websites, Social, Display, and Experiential Activations. Pretty Big Monster has strategized, designed, built, and managed all forms of content for some of the world's most iconic brands including Amazon, HBO Max, WarnerMedia, Hulu, Paramount, Netflix, NBCUniversal, Disney, and more.

Founded in 2018, Pretty Big Monster is led by Founding Partners Jason Steinberg, Christopher Lepkowski, and Bill Hargis. For more information visit www.prettybigmonster.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook.

A graphic accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e32524f6-2d12-479d-8dfc-141b8546efbc