Navigating the AR Media Frontier: 6 B2B Marketing Building Blocks

Recently on Dylan Conroy’s Ad Podcast, I had the opportunity to participate in a deep-dive discussion about a movement that is advancing quickly but still widely misunderstood: augmented reality (AR) as a media environment. Talking with both Dylan and the featured guest, Peter Pinfold, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer of Darabase, the conversation explored the challenges and opportunities brands face as they enter this exciting new media frontier.

While AR is still in its early stages, Peter emphasized that the infrastructure taking shape now will influence how brands engage their audiences in the future. From my perspective, B2B marketers should pay attention—not because AR is ready to replace our core channels, but because the foundations being built today will matter when scale and adoption arrive.

As someone who’s spent decades guiding clients to reach the right audiences through high-quality data, identity resolution, and precision targeting, I found the discussion especially compelling. If you haven’t yet made the leap into AR media activation, here are my key takeaways from the conversation:

1. AR is moving from novelty to infrastructure—slowly but meaningfully.

Peter explained that Darabase is building what he describes as “the world’s first augmented reality media network.” The goal is straightforward: enable AR ads to be served programmatically in the real world, while ensuring property owners and publishers are compensated. That media infrastructure mirrors how traditional out-of-home works today—just in a digital overlay rather than a physical surface.

What resonated was that this isn’t about creating flashy one-off experiences. It’s about setting the rules, rights, and systems that will eventually allow AR to scale as a legitimate media channel.

2. The AR ecosystem is still the Wild West—and that creates both risk and opportunity.

One of the clearest themes in Peter’s comments was the lack of permission and regulation in today’s AR environment. Right now, as he explained, anyone can anchor AR content on a property—even without the owner’s consent.

For marketers, that lack of structure is a double-edged sword:

• It creates room for experimentation.
• It also creates risk—brand safety, unauthorized use of digital space, and even legal exposure.

With my background in data-driven marketing, I immediately recognized the parallel: before CAN-SPAM, before Do-Not-Call, before opt-in rules, there was also a Wild West in digital outreach. And eventually, structure arrived.

The same will happen in AR, and B2B marketers will ultimately benefit from a permission-first framework.

3. Clean data is the foundation of any future AR activation.

During the conversation, I emphasized the importance of clean, accurate B2B data to fuel your audience building—because even in emerging spaces, this principle remains constant. Marketers need:

• the right person
• at the right company
• with the right title
• reached through the correct channels

As I shared, when intent signals are layered on top of that high-quality data set, response rates across current channels can potentially double.

Although AR isn’t yet a mainstream B2B activation channel, the same fundamentals will apply when it matures: relevance, accuracy, identity alignment, and strong intent data will determine performance.

4. The AR market is growing—but adoption will take time.

Peter cited two important numbers:

• AR advertising today: estimated at $5.2B
• AR industry size: projected to reach nearly $92B by 2030

He underscored that while AR adoption is accelerating among consumers, it is just getting started. Wearables aren’t mainstream yet. Many experiences rely on phone-based AR or QR codes, and many AR campaigns remain custom, fragmented, and not yet programmatically scalable.

The takeaway for B2B marketers: This isn’t a space to “bet the budget” on today—but it is a space to monitor, learn from, and prepare for.

5. Permissioned AR will ultimately protect marketers, brands, and consumers.

Peter explained Darabase’s introduction of Property Digital Rights—a system that allows property owners to claim and monetize their digital “air rights” in AR environments.

Having watched the evolution of email, phone, and digital advertising compliance over the years, this approach makes sense. It sets the stage for AR to become more structured and transparent, less prone to abuse and therefore safter for brands, and ultimately, more measurable.

I drew a parallel to do-not-call lists, opt-out frameworks, and email regulations—because every emerging channel eventually requires rules to protect both the user and the marketer. AR is no exception.

6. Even in AR’s early stages, the lessons apply to today’s B2B marketing challenges.

For me, one of the most stunning parts of the discussion was not specific to AR. It was about the shared frustration around outbound marketing overload – especially email. Many executives are receiving hundreds of cold outreach messages per day, often driven by AI tools sending 10,000 emails at a time.

The lesson here is that outbound alone isn’t breaking through anymore. That’s why intent signals, accurate identity resolution and targeted, well-timed messaging matter more than ever. The leaders now building the new AR media frontier have an opportunity to take this lesson to heart.

Where AR Fits for B2BMarketers—Right Now

As a B2B marketer, here are the top takeaways you need to know about programmatic advertising in the AR landscape:

• AR is evolving in interesting ways.
• The infrastructure is being built, not just the experiences.
• Permission will be essential for it to scale.
• Clean data and intent signals will remain the backbone of effective targeting.
• Adoption will grow—but we’re still in early days.
• B2B marketers don’t need to activate in AR today to benefit from understanding its trajectory.

AR may not yet be a core B2B channel—but it is a space where the future rules of audience targeting, identity, and permission are already being written.

Big thanks to Dylan for inviting me to join the conversation. As a sponsor of his B2B Podcast Series, we’re looking forward to many more compelling discussions. You can watch/listen to the full podcast here.

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