Thyng: Redefining the Art of Storytelling

Ed LaHood, CEO
Brands are continually striving to make use of augmented reality (AR) technologies to create stunning real-life experiences to engage their customers better. However, when it comes to implementing AR, brands invariably have to hire AR specialists, programmers, and integrators, which is not only time-consuming but also adds to the overhead. In spite of going through the painstaking efforts to implement AR, these investments often fail to deliver business value because the final output of AR is limited to a particular system and the experience itself cannot be renewed over time. The monotonous experience can grab the attention of the audience for only a short span of time. Disrupting the status quo by redefining AR experiences, Thyng has introduced a cloud-based platform that allows brands to deliver dynamic AR content on multiple products. Built on next-gen architecture, Thyng enables brands to present fresh marketing messages to their audience on a daily basis, effectively attracting their interest and turning more leads into sales along the journey. “We have built a cloud-based model with the ability to create, execute, and deliver content in the form of stories that are relevant to the audience. This model makes it easy, quick, and economical for brands to embrace AR,” says Ed LaHood, CEO of Thyng.

As an apostle of virtual reality (VR) and AR technologies, LaHood has always been intrigued by these cutting-edge technologies that have the massive potential to transform how people consume content. The love for these technologies always motivated him to discover untapped opportunities and enhance people’s everyday lives. Having made strong contributions to the first wave of VR technology back in the 1990s through his previous company, VREAM, LaHood has focused his energy on building an intuitive AR platform that allows brands to create unique experiences in a simple and cost-effective manner, every day. As the brainchild of LaHood, Thyng enables brands to innovate with AR and to use it as a communications platform to reach their target audience in a refreshing way.

AR Experience Delivery—Made Easy

The recent version of their platform, Thyng 4.0, uses ARKit, the latest AR technology from Apple, to enable an application to recognize any horizontal or vertical surfaces and overlay virtual objects onto them. The users can place AR scenes, including images, videos, and 3D objects onto any surface such as a floor, a wall, or a table. To elaborate, a furniture store can allow customers to utilize Thyng’s AR platform to visualize how the furniture would look in their house. Stores can create 3D models of the furniture in the app and build a channel that can be used by customers to display the property in their living room, move it around, and even tap on the product to purchase it. “Thyng 4.0 has opened up new use cases for brands and customers,” reiterates LaHood.

The latest form of AR adds value to their foremost solution, target-based AR, which provides users the ability to scan a product, logo, or image to display an AR scene overlaid onto the products.


We have built a cloud-based model with the ability to create, execute, and deliver content in the form of stories that are relevant to the audience


Through these AR implementations, Thyng stimulates enhanced communication between the brand and the customer by allowing the product and the surface to create interactive and engaging content.

Unleashing the Power of AR

Thyng has served numerous clients, from retail, consumer packaged goods, healthcare, to sports. In the healthcare industry, medical staff may often struggle to use new medical devices due to the lack of information from the manufacturer. Often, the videos and tutorials offered by the manufacturers to train users might not be easily accessible. Teams that are spread across diverse geographies and that communicate using different languages can seldom find these resources useful. Addressing a similar quandary for one of its clients, Thyng helped them associate videos with the medical product on the app. Based on a user’s location, the video is played in the relevant language, enabling them to consume the information easily and gain a greater level of knowledge and understanding of the product. “Thyng proved to be an amazing solution for both the customer and the brand as it allowed the medical product to convey its uses at the point when the customer required it the most—the engagement stage. Without having to create new resources to boost user training, the client with the help of Thyng improved user adoption in a cost-effective manner,” says the CEO.

With eyes set on augmenting its current value proposition, Thyng is planning to expand the application of their intuitive AR technology. Their platform can be expected to provide the ability to offer multi-user AR experiences in real time. Soon, users can make changes to their AR experiences dynamically and view each other’s updates in real time. “This will bring a completely revamped opportunity for real-time communications between brands and customers in real time,” says LaHood. The company is also planning to leverage Thyng on a variety of hardware platforms such as head-mounted goggles or wearable displays. Excited LaHood informs that the experiences that are currently available on Android and iOS devices will take a new shape with the next generation of wearable devices, where users can experience AR while walking around without holding the phone in their hand.

Company
Thyng

Headquarters
Chicago, IL

Management
Ed LaHood, CEO

Description
Allows clients to create AR experiences on products or surfaces by adding 3D objects, photos, or videos

Thyng