Top Virtual Reality Marketing Questions Answered!
Philip Pelucha, Commercial Director for 3D Redshift, recently gave us his thoughts on the emergence of Virtual Reality Marketing and what it means for the industry.
3D Redshift plans to be at the forefront of the Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial intelligence (AI) Marketing revolution.
Learn more about VR & AR Advertising
In collaboration with their partners, 3D Redshift offers over forty years of business agenda focused marketing. Combining both traditional and digital methods with modern and exciting VR and AR technologies, 3D Redshift creates strategies that are proven to increase their clients ROI, customer engagement and lead generation by creating engaging VR, AR, and 360 content that fully immerses audiences in their clients brands.
What do you enjoy most about working in Virtual Reality?
I am extremely proud to be connected with some of the largest brands in the world, including Sports, Food, Fashion, Film, Engineering, and Property clients. I am most proud of the diversity of these industries, as it never ceases to amaze me how many applications there are for this technology.
I found myself being asked the same five questions, no matter what sector or where I am in the world. I am keen to take this opportunity to answer those questions for you now.
Does VR Marketing work?
I love this question! The short answer is YES, but a more honest answer is Yes, with certain considerations. As with all types of marketing, success is heavily dependent on the audience, the quality and relevance of content and the goals.
VR has many marketers spooked. It is something new that requires a unique and detailed strategy to ensure success for their clients. So, rather than adapt to something new, you often find that they flee from it, as recently demonstrated in the article by Janet Morrissey in the NY Times, aptly titled ‘ Virtual Reality leads marketers down a tricky path’.
It is very easy to make VR a gimmick, it takes careful planning, storyboarding, and audience profiling to get it right. But when you do, the results are magical!
What is the main advantage of VR Marketing?
I will answer this question in two parts, as the benefits of VR and 360 content is slightly different to that of AR.
Firstly, VR and 360 content is a new and exciting platform to communicate with your audience, but it also provides something more; this is a unique opportunity to submerge your audience and engage them with your brand, like never before!
Digital Marketing expert, Gary Vaynerchuk recently said that a marketers job is to find where the audience are looking and place content there. Given that we are well on target to exceed Statistas global VR users predictions of 171 million by 2018, it’s safe to say that we need to be engaging with this technology.
There will also be those who disagree of course, and I respect everyone’s right to have their opinion. All I would say is that the following people were also entitled to their opinion, it didn’t make them right…
“[Television] won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” — Darryl Zanuck, movie producer, 20th Century Fox, 1946.
“When the Paris Exhibition [of 1878] closes, electric light will close with it and no more will be heard of it.” – Oxford professor Erasmus Wilson
“The cinema is little more than a fad. It’s canned drama. What audiences really want to see is flesh and blood on the stage.” -– Charlie Chaplin, actor, producer, director, and studio founder, 1916
As for Augmented Reality, this is a particularly exciting development. We are currently working on several projects with tourism boards, educational and historical establishments to bring their location to life. This, in layman’s terms, is taking a 360 video and creating the ability to interact and engage with this content. Lifting the world cup, touching a piece of history or seeing a piece of equipment in action.
The main advantage of VR, AR and 360 marketing remains the immersive, inclusive and engaging environment in which to capture your audience and share your brand, in a fun, engaging and unrivalled way.
Will VR marketing be successful in my sector?
Like many others, my belief was that VR would work best in certain sectors – Sports, Film and Fashion for example, and they do work well in those sectors. Surprisingly, I have found it incredibly exciting to work with clients in other less obvious sectors.
Property –From 360 tours of properties for those unable to attend property viewings, to commercial properties and architects wishing to demonstrate their skills providing 360 walkthroughs of projects, a VR blueprint, if you will.
Recruitment / Employee engagement – Goals range from interview preparation, international training, corporate seminars and 360 job adverts! This is certain to alter how we prepare for job interviews and communicate with our colleagues.
Biomed – Educational, sharing of knowledge or expertise, VR will ultimately change how medical professionals engage with each other and develop key skills.
Engineering – I for one have always found engineering a fascinating subject and I am clearly not alone. Engineering firms are looking to share their work, achievements and culture with the world – from creation and transport of aircraft wings to building of underwater tunnels and pipelines.
Will all my customers need to wear a headset?
No. Although wearing a headset can greatly improve the experience, audiences can view the content in a variety of ways – smartphones, tablets or browser based. Facebook and other social media platforms are quickly adapting to facilitate the usage of 360 content, and it won’t be too long before we see VR Facebook adverts etc.
My personal recommendation would be that your smartphone is fine for short clips or adverts, but if you are to stream concerts, locations, tours or anything longer than a few minutes in length, I would strongly recommend the use of a headset to enjoy the full experience.
What is the future of VR marketing?
Since the beginning of time, the world has been blessed with technological advancements like radio, TV, electricity, films, and more recently wireless, HD, Ultra HD, 360 and VR.
I am unsure for certain what the future holds for VR marketing, but I can say with confidence and pride that I am both excited and looking forward to finding out! VR is here to stay, that’s for sure, and everything else is open to creation. Isn’t that awesome?!
I hope that this has answered some of your questions regarding VR Marketing. I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions and comments. Feel free to contact me at phil@3dredshift.co.uk
