Augmented Reality in Brand Narratives: A Scoping Review of Presence, Immersion, and Recall

Abstract

Introduction: Augmented reality (AR) overlays digital objects and messages onto consumers’ physical environments. Its use in advertising, retail, and brand storytelling is often justified by an assumed ability to create memorable experiences; however, presence, immersion, attitude, and recall are distinct outcomes. Objective: To map empirical evidence available through 30 September 2025 on AR in brand experiences and narratives, focusing on presence or immersion, recall or recognition, and the roles of usability, novelty, agency, and narrative integration. Method: A JBI-informed scoping review was reported according to PRISMA-ScR. Four historical Crossref queries retrieved 200 records; 171 were unique and 115 potentially relevant. Thirty-eight reports were assessed and 15 were included. The synthesis separated direct memory evidence, experiential mechanisms, and narrative/transmedia evidence. Results: Only one included experiment assessed brand recall as its central outcome and found an AR advantage contingent on joint product presentation, with no advantage for individually presented products. A brand-storytelling experiment (n=83) showed higher flow and indirect effects on attitudes and associations, mainly through control and attentional focus, but did not demonstrate delayed recall. Evidence was more consistent for spatial or local presence, curiosity, attention, inspiration, arousal, and brand closeness. These mechanisms did not always yield better attitudes: familiarity, sequence, implementation quality, agency, and interaction burden modified outcomes. Specifically transmedia evidence was scarce and mainly descriptive. Conclusion: Through the cutoff date, AR cannot be treated as a universal amplifier of brand recall. Its value depends on coherent integration of content, interaction, and context; presence and immersion are plausible mechanisms, not proxies for memory.