VR and Experiential Marketing

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VR and Experiential Marketing

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

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“More than a million people actively usevirtual reality products every month,” MarkZuckerburg at Oculus Connect in San Jose.

The fascination and appeal of virtual and augmented reality has arrived, hitting the mainstream like a tidal

wave in 2016- creating a new, personalized way to consume marketing content. Virtual Reality (VR) takes

the most basic yet most effective marketing concept, ‘Try before you buy’, and puts it in the comfort of

people’s homes. VR is poised to transform the way business is done.

Perhaps even more significantly than the mainstreaming of VR, Augmented Reality (AR) became a cultural

phenomenon this summer, when Pokemon Go captured the imagination of the masses. The game took a

concept that eluded most of the public, and put it literally in the palm of their hands. While Pokemon Go’s

moment in the spotlight is likely over, the seed has been planted in the public’s consciousness- making the

concept of a mixed reality fun, accessible and engaging.

 

Photo by Getty Images

Why is VR essential to Engagement Marketing?  

On the subject of applying virtual reality to experiential marketing, Forbes recently reported, “While

experiential marketing might apply to more real-world applications, in the virtual world, we can

experience realistic situations in VR digital realms.” Top advertising agencies such as Horizon Media are

eager to implement VR in campaigns for their elite clientele, noting, “VR requires marketers to rethink

media and focus sharply on immersive experiences versus trying to retrofit VR into existing campaigns.”

 

VR addresses several problems that face marketers around building engagement and awareness the

following ways: (via mbryonic)

Interactive and Immersive – Connecting to the experience via hardware (a headset or mobile device)

captures the attention of your audience, by immersing and interacting with the content in a

meaningful way leaves less room for distractions and more attention on the message.

Impactful – the intensity of a VR experience is greater than traditional media by tapping into strong

emotional investment in its audience.

Memorable – our brains are built to remember events linked to locations, and VR experiences have a

longer trace in the audience’s memory than a less immersive experience.

Novel – with high media and public interest in VR early adopters can benefit from the audience’s

curiosity, social sharing and favorable media exposure

 

“Try Before You Buy”: Branding a VirtualExperience 

 e-Commerce has created a seismic shift in the way the world shops. The limits of marketing innovation in

the 2-dimensional realm have been reached, and there remains a chasm that disconnects consumers from

the places and products they want to engage with the most. Overcoming the experiential gap in online

shopping has been a major barrier to converting shoppers into buyers. Until now.

 

Producing branded virtual reality content has been called the ‘final frontier’ ofmarketing technology by the Wall Street Journal.

The virtual experience of “Try before You Buy” is set to revolutionize the retail sales world.  In an era in

which most retail sales happen on the couch or on the go, and malls are quickly converting into mixed use

spaces, the time is right for consumers to re-establish the intimacy of shopping and engaging with brands

in a new way. VR has become a conduit of storytelling, creating a bond of intimacy around how brands can

engage with customers. Pieter Aarts, CEO of the mixed reality interior design platform roOomy, noted

in Network World “Virtual reality will provide retailers (specifically through online channels) with the

ability to offer fully-immersive, interactive shopping experiences.”

Photo by Getty Images

Closing the Visualization Gap  

The magic of virtual reality software is this feeling of presence, the feeling you’rereally there with another person or in another place,” Mark Zuckerberg at OculusConnect

One of the first industries to implement virtual reality, real estate’s use of VR in marketing properties is

transforming the way agents win listings, engage buyers and expand their audiences. Remote property

tours and photo-realistic virtual staging solutions are rapidly becoming the industry standard, penetrating

the out-of-town and luxury markets by giving potential buyers the experience of ‘being home’ before ever

entering a property’s zip code.

Forbes states, “The real estate industry possibly stands to see the largesttransformation from virtual reality with the technologies adoption and application.”

Inc Magazine’s Neil C. Hughes recently declared roOomy’s virtual decorating solution ‘a game-changer’. For

people searching for a new home or wanting to re-design their existing abode, he notes “the ability to see

exactly how the design in your head would look in reality complete with purchasable furnishings has the

potential to be a game-changer for the industry.” By offering 3D models of real home furnishings and

accessories by top retailers, roOomy allows a realtor or homeowner to virtually create an entirely new look

in an existing room, simply with the use of an iPad.

 “With projected revenues topping $120 billion by 2020 for both VR and AR, theseplatforms are set to create a dramatic upheaval in every industry on earth.”According to Forbes

Industries such as gaming and travel, in addition to real estate retail, are leading the way in monetizing virtualexperiences. The time has come for marketers to discover and implement immersive and interactive virtual technologies,and find new audiences foster effective intimate connections between brands and buyers.

and find new audiences foster effective intimate connections between brands and buyers.

 

 

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