August 24, 2016

Five Reasons Keep Your Eyes on Virtual Reality as a Marketing Tool

Welcome to the future. It is the year 2020 and you are wearing your Virtual Reality goggles taking a tour of potential vacation locations. No this isn’t totally science fiction, experts predict that by that year virtual reality will become a $30 billion market and be mainstream. In the last few years, we’ve seen great leaps in this technology and it continues to grow. Most people think of this technology as a new way for entertainment, but it has already begun to make its way in the medical field, social media, education, and more.

We’ve already begun to see the success of augmented reality, in Pokemon Go, but virtual reality can change the way we do things. And marketing is no exception.

I will go over the 5 reasons why you should keep your eyes on virtual reality as a marketing tool.

Accessibility:

For any technology to become an influential marketing tool, it must become accessible to the customers for their use. The way social media changed marketing by offering a free platform for users to use and later used it as a marketing tool, can be what we will see for virtual reality. Look at television and how the price drops helped get more sets in homes and more eyes to see commercials. Virtual reality sets prices have dropped to double figures, and Google’s Cardboard AR viewers can be purchased for less than $20. At this point, you can even make your own cardboard viewers with your brand on it, similar to what McDonalds has done in the past. With smartphones becoming more powerful, they are now being used for some of these viewers, meaning that almost all smartphone users already have the technology to experience virtual reality.

The interest for virtual reality isn’t just for consumers, but for developers and companies. A few years ago, setting up a virtual reality project was expensive and a lot more difficult than today. New technology is offering cheaper and more user-friendly equipment to create these experiences. The easier and cheaper it is to create VR experiences will create more, and hopefully better, experiences for consumers.

Immersive:

The beauty of virtual reality is that a consumer is completely immersed into the experience. Unlike watching a video on their phones where they can be distracted by their surroundings, VR will keep them focused on what you want them to focus on. This immersion will allow you to tell your story and keep their attention on your message. That is something that no other technology can really do at the moment and will be a valuable tool that VR will offer markers.

Impactful:

Going alone with being immersive, VR experiences are impactful. The intensity of a VR experience is more impactful than other forms of media, aka reading a blog. This can generate strong emotional responses from consumers that can lead to a certain behavior. Don’t get this confused with converting ads into VR and expecting to win over customers. The reason VR is so impactful is also because of the way a message is portrayed to the consumer so they become engaged.

Memorable:

Since VR is such a new technology right now, any and every VR experience we have with it now becomes memorable. But later, when done right, VR can become a memorable experience for doing things that we couldn’t experience anywhere else. And keeping your message in your customers head’s longer is great for marketing.

Novel:

Again, with the newness of this technology any new application of VR gets high media and public interest that can lead to media exposure. Getting into the game early can get you recognition for standing out before the market gets full. In a few years, these technologies will become a norm.

Keep your eye on this evolving technology that will become a big player in many industries in the years to come. Marketers will have a new tool to reach the masses, but like with anything, they should know how to use it. Virtual Reality is about creating experiences to promote a message. It will offer mundane experiences like allowing users to visit a virtual store to virtually look and try products. It can also immerse them in a whole new world to experience the thrill of a new film that is coming out. Maybe you think virtual reality is not to be in your marketing strategy just yet, so in the meantime keep up to date with other digital marketing tips with GreatLike Media blogs.

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