We all know marketing is an extremely important aspect of business. On one hand, a successful marketing campaign can raise your brand to the top of the world, while a poorly designed ad campaign not only costs you money but can have a negative effect on the whole brand and the company itself.
“Virtual Reality is proving to be the perfect marketing tool.”
Luckily, the technology is always evolving and providing companies with new tools for advertising their products and building creative campaigns. And lately, Virtual Reality is proving to be the perfect marketing tool.
How VR changed in the last years
Virtual Reality has been with us for a long time, but has really become useful only in recent years. When thinking about VR headsets our first thought goes to hardcore gamers who have gadgets strapped all over their bodies so the games can read the data from the real world and transfer it to the virtual reality.
“VR headsets have become lighter,
more comfortable and very intuitive.”
But Virtual Reality headsets have come a long way in recent years. They have become lighter, more comfortable and very intuitive. They only use a few sensors to teleport the user into the virtual world where they can offer a truly immersive experience.
At the same time, more and more people are buying VR headsets and Virtual Reality is, therefore, becoming a more and more popular choice for the marketers. But how can you use VR to your advantage?
VR Experience
A Virtual Reality experience is, as the name says, an experience in a virtual world. It provides an authentic and immersive adventure for the user, as the user is encouraged to see, control and test your product in a virtual environment. One of the best examples of a VR experience is IKEA’s kitchen app, that allowed the user to cook in an IKEA kitchen.
Early research suggests that VR Experiences (if done and used correctly) help create a strong emotional bond between the client and the product. And isn’t that every brand’s dream?
“Virtual Reality Experience help create a
strong emotional bond between the client and the product”
VR Experiences can be presented on-site or in a studio, but can also be shared via an online link so the user can download and try them out at home.
Take a tour of a luxury seaside condo in Creative Solutions’ CondoVR experience
VR Advertising
Advertising in Virtual Reality works pretty much like in the real world. You can place an ad before the VR experience starts, similar to what you see in the cinema with the ads running before the movie starts. But you can buy space in the actual experience as well. So if you find an experience or a game that suits your target audience, why not use the experience to promote your product? Imagine the user playing a world cup game on a stadium that is shining in your company’s colors and the banners showing your logo everytime someone scores.
Since Virtual Reality is relatively new, the advertising space is still very much unlittered and the prices are much, much more affordable than real-world prices.
VR Panorama
Panoramic or 360-degree images are nothing new, but they can be now viewed in a whole new way. With the use of a mobile Virtual Reality headset, the user can be transported in a virtual world, where he can see the complete 360-degree image around him. With a little bit of programming, he can also travel from location to location or be given additional info about the products. You can use this to create a virtual showcase for your products.
The panoramic images can be integrated onto a website or created into a mobile experience, which practically guarantees a large target audience. Mobile VR is also very handy as a B2B marketing tool. Simply create a mobile VR app, buy a bunch of cardboard headsets and send them to your client. It doesn’t get easier than that!
Creative Solutions have taken the experience a step further and created a VR app that streams the 360-degree images (or renders) from your website or server and displays them in user’s mobile app. You can download the CondoVR mobile app for free.
Virtual Reality is rising very quickly and according to predictions, it will become one of the best mediums for marketers. While inside the virtual world, the user is completely focused on the advertised product and in the fast-paced world that we live in, that is a huge plus.