AT&T Doubles Down on AR to Get Consumers Excited About 5G

With more Americans than ever now connected to some form of 5G, AT&T is rolling out a slew of new partnerships aimed at showing off the range of entertainment and consumer tech those connections can power. At an event in New York, the telecom unveiled a series of deals with companies like Facebook's augmented reality lab, Google-owned cloud gaming service Stadia and the National Basketball Association that mostly centered on what experts say are two of 5G's most promising near-term applications: cloud gaming and mixed-reality. The announcements come as AT&T prepares to spin off WarnerMedia and DirectTV to focus on its core wireless business—much like chief rival Verizon has done with its own former media ambitions in the past couple of years. The new projects included a Space Jam: A New Legacy-themed AR effect built in partnership with Facebook, more 5G-powered NBA in-stadium and at-home graphics and a partnership with Bookful that will bring children's books to life in AR. AT&T also said it's partnering with Boingo Wireless to bring 5G to more airports across the country. 5G awareness achieved AT&T CMO Kellyn Smith Kenny said partnerships like these show the public the wide range of use cases for 5G in tangible ways. Thanks to new devices like the iPhone 12, people are generally aware of the concept of 5G and what it is in basic terms, Smith Kenny said—the company's next marketing goal is to show off its impact. "People have heard of it, but they're like, 'Well, why does it matter to me? Why is that important?'" she said in an interview. And while the current nascent state of 5G is still far from the full potential experts expect to eventually power a host of connected device markets ranging from smart cities to self-driving cars, Smith Kenny said AT&T is focused on some of the early applications where 5G can make a difference as it exists today—tech like AR, sports broadcasting and gaming. "One of the things we've been trying to do is walk the line of foreshadowing a little about what's possible in the future. But with today's event, it's about the here and now—'How do we get people to understand that there's cool new things happening in sports? Or there's cool, interesting new things happening in entertainment?'" Smith Kenny said. Various reports show the Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge effect on consumer awareness of technologies like mixed reality and gaming as the public turned to new ways of connecting while quarantine measures were in place. Smith Kenny said the shift has had a huge impact in how receptive consumers are to various 5G applications, particularly in the mobile gaming space. "Five years ago—even three years ago—people wouldn't have thought that I can have high quality immersive gaming on a [smartphone]. You would have thought, 'I need to be either with a controller in front of my TV or on my PC with a hardwire fiber line jack into my computer to have that low latency," she said. "And with some of the work that we're doing with Google Stadia, people are having a completely different experience." Maintaining media partnerships Between the Space Jam-themed AR effects and a booth touting a new virtual reality experience at the Harry Potter store in New York, various WarnerMedia properties occupied a prominent place at the event. Smith Kenny said AT&T expects to continue to maintain a working relationship with the former Time Warner companies even as the telecom prepares to spin them off into a separate entity merged with Discovery Communications in the coming months. "I don't actually think much will change with the two companies officially separate," Smith Kenny said. "And I think we'll continue to have really close relationship with WarnerMedia. They have incredible assets and it is a joy to be able to partner with them and market and co-market with them." What Marketers Can Expect From 5G in 2021

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AT&T Doubles Down on AR and Cloud Gaming in Effort to Get Consumers Excited About 5G

The telecom recently unveiled a flurry of new tech partnerships

Patrick Kulp

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Patrick Kulp