Create Experience Through Virtual and Augmented Reality
Experience. It’s a word we hear often as digital marketers. Actually, it's more than a word, it’s a goal every business must achieve. You might be doing everything right but why not take a step further? With virtual and augmented reality you can do just that.
What Is VR & AR?
In simple terms, virtual reality (VR) changes your world. Literally. It’s a computer-generated world that appears to be real, so real that your senses and perception are immersed in your surroundings.
I know it’s 2021 and you might already own a VR set at home for gaming, but this concept has been around forever. Ok, not forever, but since the 1950s. The first virtual set was called Sensorama. It was meant to fully give the user the experience of a film and would stimulate all the senses.
Though VR and AR go under the same umbrella, augmented reality or AR is a way for virtual content to overlap the existing world. If you’ve used filters from social media, snap lenses being the most popular, then you know what AR is. Or better yet, the infamous Pokémon Go.
In the Digital Marketing World
Now that you understand the differences, how can you, as a digital marketer, incorporate this? Well, it really depends on whom your marketing to. The great thing about AR and VR is that you can use them for business-to-consumer, business-to-business, and business-to-anyone. And though VR seems the coolest to use, companies are moving towards AR as it’s most accessible to the public. Most people have a phone or tablet but they don't have the new Oculus Quest 2 VR set.
How It's used
There are several ways to use AR, take IKEA for example. My favorite store. In 2017 they launched the IKEA Place app that recognizes IKEA products in real-time. The app scales the room you want the furniture in and based on the dimensions it calculates, you can see the furniture placed with a 98% accuracy rate.
The engagement on the app is great, after 4 years of launching, their customer reviews have maintained high. Other than a better customer experience, return rates reduce. Customers will have more confidence in purchasing IKEA's furniture after "sampling". https://thinkmobiles.com/blog/augmented-reality-retail/
Why You Need AR
Maybe you don't like the IKEA example so how about I let you know on a few stats Three Kit mentions:
- 71% of consumers say they would shop more often if companies used AR
- 61% of consumers prefer retailers with AR experience
- 40% of consumers will pay more for using the convenience of AR
- And conversion rates with AR are about 40%
Crazy! It's like tech actually works.
In Conclusion
Creating an experience is essential in every business and as a digital marketer, it is important to implement VR and especially AR in that experience. Technology is constantly changing and evolving, learning these tools now will help you jump into the next big thing later.