Passengers at a bus stop in London recently got more than they had bargained for when they were plunged into a world of science fiction thanks to augmented reality advertising. After one woman was scared out of her seat by a crashing meteor, it was another passenger’s turn to be terrified by a tentacled monster trying to grab passers-by.

“We are immersed in advertisement from morning to evening. We interact with about 10,000 brands each day… 10,000 – that’s a huge number!,” says advertising and marketing professor Julien Intartaglia. “Which means that to stand out from this flood of brands in people’s everyday life, we have to be creative, resourceful in order to attract consumers’ interest and make them relate to the product.”

The question is: does this kind of advertising sell more?

The answer is: it’s still too early to tell. But the strength of augmented reality advertising is that it creates an experience consumers can share with others, turning them into ambassadors for