We Are Social backs agency to offer brands AR at scale

Clients are being offered the chance to launch augmented reality campaigns at scale, with the launch of a new agency backed by social media pioneers We Are Social.

Make My Day is being spearheaded by two former chiefs of Snap and Pinterest and will look to evolve work in the AR space from one-off executions, to multi-platform campaigns that complement wider marketing strategies.

The agency is being led by managing director Will Scougal (pictured, left), who has spent seven years in leadership positions at Snap, most recently as global director of creative strategy.

Scougal helped Snap launch Vertical Video, Snap Stories and AR globally, and developed the platform’s EMEA commercial strategy for scaling AR revenue via brand partnerships.

Before Snap, Scougal was head of brand strategy at Twitter. Mark Carroll, previously creative strategy lead at Pinterest, joins Make My Day as co-founder and strategy director.

It has a platform agnostic approach and can work with brands on AR activations across any social network, including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. It also launches with an official partnership with Snap, where it will offer its approach to AR to the app’s roster of performance and brand marketing partners.

In addition to offering AR advertising to its clients, Make My Day will provide brands with strategic advice on how to plan for an augmented future. This includes exploring the role of AR in enhancing consumer engagement, experience and ecommerce strategy.

Make My Day is based in We Are Social’s UK office in Finsbury Square, and will benefit from access to the agency’s UK team of 250 social experts, across departments such as creative, design and production.

Scougal, who will report to We Are Social UK chief executive Jim Coleman (pictured, right), said: “When it comes to AR, the opportunity to deliver real business results is growing exponentially. Make My Day is set up to do this from the outset.

“The AR audience is one of the most engaged on mobile and we focus singularly on using AR to connect brands with people in meaningful ways, through the experience itself and the results it delivers.

“Up to now, AR marketing has been laser focused on one piece of work at a time, but with today’s varied digital media diets, that’s just not going to deliver the right level of performance.

“We Are Social is the ideal fit for us as a partner – it defined social media for brands, and our ambition is the same for AR as it becomes the first Web 3 format to scale. Being able to tap into the team’s talent, and learn from Jim and others that have already been on this journey, is a huge benefit for us as an ambitious start up.”

Coleman added: “Will is one the world’s best when it comes to advising brands on how to use AR, so Make My Day has the potential to truly disrupt the advertising industry.

“Over the last few years we’ve seen growing demand for AR from our clients in the social space, and of course as technology improves across platforms the format is only going to get better. After video, AR is the fastest growing digital format, so we know that it will have a transformative effect on the entire marketing ecosystem.”