Growing numbers of businesses are using Virtual Reality and its siblings Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality to engage with consumers.
The marketing department has never been one to shy away from innovation, and while its hit-and-miss relationship with shiny new toys doesn’t always succeed, VR, and in particular AR, are a standout exception.
Shiny new toys
As we revealed in a recent report, when put into the hands and onto the heads of consumers, VR, AR and MR can be a compelling means of promoting your product or service, whether you’re a consumer goods firm, an SME or sporting event.
VR’s ability to transport people to places they would never usually get to go is its most compelling virtue. Big hitters like National Geographic have taken consumers to far-flung spots of the world, and even into off-planet, into space.
But the tech is equally as accessible to a small independent travel agent, which could give a new lease of life to the old-school holiday brochure by equipping a prospective customer with a headset and taking them on a virtual safari.
Motorsport has long had strong links to VR, which has seen the development of VR-playable versions of games such as Dirt Rally for the PlayStation, so there was always going to be a natural fit for Formula 1 to use VR in its marketing.
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Although F1 had long been a sport and an organization steeped in tradition – and was often criticized for its resistance to innovation – when it was taken over by Liberty Media In 2016, the new owners were vocal about how they planned to broaden the sport’s appeal and embrace technology to improve the consumer experience.
In 2016, Formula 1 signed a deal with virtual reality provider The Dream VR, to literally fulfill the dreams of petrolheads across the globe. The partnership led to the creation of an F1 VR app, allowing users to gain a 360-degree view from the team garages and paddock, to the starting blocks and finish podium. Liberty has said in the past that one day it hopes fans can experience a Grand Prix from the cockpit of their favorite driver’s car.
Aside from capturing the adrenaline-pumping speed of a motorsport, VR is equally at home for more sedate brands.
And while not everyone has access to a pricey headset, VR can also be done on the cheap. Stella Artois five years’ ago created a virtual reality app that allowed consumers to take to the skies and experience Wimbledon’s All England Club courts from the bird’s-eye point of view of its official pigeon-hunting Rufus the Hawk. Rather than relying on consumers owning the expensive kit (especially so five years back), or having to provide their own at scale, it handed out Google’s super-cheap Cardboard headsets to people at stations, who could then use their smartphone to have a virtual experience.
But as appealing and transportive as VR for the world of marketing, consumer penetration among the population is but a small percentage point.
VR’s more nimble sibling
The opposite is the case with the smartphone, a device primed for AR, a technology that’s important for the bricks-and-mortar retail sector, not only threatened by the encroachment of e-commerce but hit by COVID-19 lockdown.
AR apps can pull consumers in with their tactility, with advertising that can be interacted with. They can also be used to let consumers trial products virtually.
Swedish furniture superstore IKEA has embraced AR and made it available to any of its customers owning a smartphone.
Dubbed IKEA Place, the app uses a phone’s camera and allows customers to try out new furniture in their homes, by “placing” virtual items into their living spaces. They can then seamlessly order items that fit their aesthetic needs.
In no event
One of the sectors hit hardest by lockdown has been the world of events, so it’s little surprise that organizers have been seeking alternatives to their physical experiences. In June, Glastonbury’s Shangri-La launched a music and arts festival called Lost Horizon that revelers could attend by donning their Oculus or Vive. The following month, Wireless Festival followed suit with a digital rendering of its three-day event.
Marketers like to tell anyone who’s listening about how they are storytellers. And while the best traditional advertising can successfully tell a story, the product message often blunts the narrative cut-through.
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But the capacity for VR, AR, and, perhaps down the line, MR, to thrust consumers into those narratives – allowing them to explore a digitally-rendered environment, interact with and virtually try out goods or services – points to a future in which marketers can give consumers a starring role in their brand story.
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