The Gift Becomes an Experience (Podcast)

On this episode of The Main Course, host Barbara Castiglia learns how the gift card experience is being modernized and personalized using augmented reality (AR). Guests Jack Serfass, CEO, Uptown Network, and Patrick Johnson, CEO, Rock Paper Reality explained its applicability to restaurants. 

“Essentially, it’s a fusion of the digital and physical world,” said Johnson. “It’s an overlay of virtual information on the physical environment. You can make 3-D models of meals and the restaurant.”

Serfass, whose background includes launching software companies and owning a restaurant, said the company launched its digital menu platform pre-pandemic, which supported restaurants. Still, the company wanted to do more to help clients generate revenue in the gift card space. “Gift cards are old, so we were thinking of how to reimagine it, and AR was capable of doing that.”

Instead of sending that dull plastic card, consumers can virtually gift an actual item, personalizing the…