Empowering the Future of Augmented Reality

The Challenge

As augmented reality (AR) evolved from novelty to necessity, one of the world’s leading camera-first platforms needed to go beyond general user data. Their aim? To deeply understand and segment the global developer ecosystem-from hobbyists to professionals-who were engaging with their AR content creation tools across diverse geographies.

With growing competition in AR development and increasing demand for personalized AR experiences, the client recognized a critical blind spot: they lacked a global AR developer segmentation framework. Their internal data was insufficient to guide product design, developer engagement, or AR monetization strategy at scale.

Research Objectives

To power future growth and innovation, our mandate was to:

Our Approach: A Multi-Method Segmentation Research Methodology

Using our proprietary Enterprise Segmentation methodology, we deployed a deeply layered approach:

1. Immersion & Hypothesis Co-Creation

• Audited internal SDK analytics and platform telemetry.
• Mapped out developer behavior across 6 verticals: Mobile, Web/SaaS, Gaming, Wearables, 3rd Party Apps, and Data/ML.
• Established initial clusters (e.g., Unity AR development vs. Lens Studio usage, monetizers vs. hobbyists).

2. Qualitative Discovery

• Conducted 15 in-depth interviews with AR professionals, hobbyists, and Spark AR creators across key markets.
• Uncovered key insights around creation barriers, skill gaps, platform preferences, and how creators define success.

3. Quantitative Deep Dive

• Rolled out a global survey (n=3,000) across 11 markets: including the US, India, China, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia.
• Captured:
  • SDK usage trends among AR developers
  • Awareness and usage of tools like Unity, Spark AR, and Lens Studio
  • Intent to scale, monetize, or switch platforms
  • Motivations for entering or avoiding AR 

4. Segmentation Analytics

• Applied dimension reduction to isolate attitudinal drivers like “viral reach,” “technical confidence,” and “AR openness.”
• Ran cluster analysis, surfacing five meaningful personas:
  • AR Professionals
  • AR Hobbyists
  • Non-AR Developers (Open to AR)
  • Non-AR Creators (Open to AR)
  • Multi-platform Monetizers

5. Persona Validation & Workshop

• Validated segments using internal SDK adoption analysis and CRM engagement patterns.
• Ran client workshops to co-refine the final 5-segment solution.
• Developed full personas-detailing each segment’s tools, skills, loyalty, learning paths, and monetization readiness.

6. Typing Tool & CRM Integration

• Created a lightweight 5-question typing tool to classify new audiences.
• Developed CRM tagging logic for digital marketing and ABM for tech platforms.

7. Digital Targeting & Lifecycle Activation

• Designed developer lifecycle playbooks for each persona (e.g., AR hobbyists = skill upskilling + how to monetize AR content).
• Built LinkedIn-based lookalike modeling and programmatic targeting strategies.

Sample Framework Overview

Business Impact

Product Strategy

• Re-engineered Lens Studio onboarding challenges based on beginner creator needs.
• Informed feature roadmap to help non-AR developers transition into AR more easily. 

Marketing Strategy

• Activated ABM campaigns built around segment personas.
• Personalized content journeys-e.g., AR creator lifecycle analysis for hobbyists, monetization guides for professionals.

Ecosystem & Community Support

• Identified key gaps in AR monetization tools and peer learning resources.
• Led to development of new tutorials, toolkits, and webinars tailored to creator needs.

Developer Learning & Enablement

• Customized upskilling journeys by persona (e.g., Unity AR development to Lens Studio workflows).
• Aligned messaging and UX to creator maturity and future intent.

Global Insight Advantage

• Uncovered regional strengths (e.g., India and Brazil showed high interest in AR development, low monetization readiness).
• Tailored regional go-to-market efforts to align with local adoption curves.

Final Thoughts

By combining deep qualitative understanding, quantitative rigor, and behavioral telemetry, this research laid the foundation for segmenting AR developers and creators in a way that’s actionable, scalable, and future-facing.

For this camera-first platform, the segmentation became a lens into the future-helping it build AR content creation tools not just for today’s developer, but for tomorrow’s AR pioneers.