How Brands Have Integrated AR & VR in Their Digital Marketing Strategy

You’ve definitely heard of Virtual Reality or ‘VR’ – but you might think it’s just a bit of fun for avid gamers playing with VR games or VR apps. So, what exactly is virtual reality??

Whilst there are plenty of fun examples of virtual reality games – whether that’s virtual roller coasters, snooker, or even space exploration,?virtual reality has so much to offer across healthcare, business and even marketing.

Perhaps through a VR simulator, you can try your hand at the trickiest parts of space exploration, or experience something that you would never do in your wildest dreams – like scaling a building!

If it sounds like fantasy, then read on, because virtual reality is becoming a reality for many businesses, healthcare providers and individuals across the world.

Virtual Reality (VR) for Digital Marketing

• VR digital marketing allows companies to bridge the gap between experience and action. You can use VR to offer a digital experience in place of a physical one, which can promote products and services.
• As well as promoting existing products, you can also use VR to showcase development. This will help to get customers invested in what you are creating - as well as give you a source of feedback.
• Most importantly, VR changes the dynamic between brands and consumers. Rather than using ad blockers or clicking out of ads as quickly as possible, people seek out VR brand experiences. Here, your consumers come to you, rather than you needing to attract them.

Augmented Reality (AR) for Digital marketing

• Augmented reality (AR) is an emerging trend in digital marketing and sales strategies. It allows brands to give customers unique experiences with the convenience of tapping into their mobile devices.
• AR gives you another tool when it comes to driving sales and enhancing brand value through mobile devices.
• Brands can use AR to allow consumers to try products before they buy them, with augmented shopping experiences becoming increasingly popular. From testing makeup to test driving a possible new car!

What Is Virtual Reality And How Is It Going To Change Our Future?

As technology advances, those desires change and a brand must keep pace with those changes.

Virtual Reality (VR) is an emerging trend within marketing and sales strategies, one that allows brands to give their customers unique experiences with the convenience of tapping into their mobile devices.

Brands are integrating this technology in their Digital Marketing strategies to offer the audience “a feel of what they can expect from the product or service they are buying” and additionally,?AR (Augmented Reality) / VR also provides an innovative edge to their marketing efforts.

Here’s how these brands have utilised AR/VR in their marketing campaigns.

Samsung VR | A Moon For All Mankind VR

Samsung, in collaboration with NASA created an immersive 4D lunar gravity VR experience for a campaign to provide participants an actual moon landing experience on VR created moon. Users step into a flight suit and harness whilst wearing a Gear VR headset. They then immerse themselves in a visual and physical experience that recreates a moon mission

This is probably the most realistic moonwalking experience out there! Samsung’s design team and NASA’s Active Response Gravity Offload System (ARGOS) team worked to make this sensation as accurate as possible by mapping to the actual partial gravity experience of walking on the moon.

Oreo | The World of a Flavoured Cookie 360°

Explore a 360° interactive world filled with rich, cocoa treats by Oreo. This is a fun VR marketing campaign created by digital agency 360i. It takes curious confectioners on a whimsical journey through a ‘wonder vault.’ After being transported through a life-size Oreo cookie portal, you move into a magical land filled with milk rivers and the brand’s latest creation; Filled Cupcake flavoured Oreos.

Volvo?| XC90 Test Drive VR

Possibly one of the best applications of VR is using it to test drive a car when you don’t have a dealership nearby, and that’s exactly what Volvo did a few years ago. This is a brilliant marketing move because not only has it put Volvo on the map (again) for something innovative, it’s also accessible. They’re now offering a “weekend escape” version of the app which includes 360-degree landscapes, allowing adventurers a chance to cement the pairing of “adventure” and “Volvo” in their heads, something which, given the practical element of Volvo’s branding, may never have occurred before.

Ikea?| Virtual Reality Store:

Ikea has set up a virtual reality initiative that allows customers to see what their house will look like after desired home improvements.

It has developed a VR-based app that allows customers to “place” furniture into their homes to decide on the look, feel, and fit. This is considered to be one of the simplest, most accessible and most practical VR applications to date.

What is the difference between virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR)?

It’s a strange time to be alive when we now have three kinds of reality – normal reality (complete with grumpy spouse and athlete’s foot), virtual reality and augmented reality. What are the differences?

It’s key to see virtual reality as a fully synthetic world, and to understand that augmented reality overlays virtual 3D graphics onto our real world (think Pokémon Go) literally augmenting the way we see our everyday life.

Virtual reality in contrast helps users feel like they are actually experiencing various activities.

Augmented Reality is a virtual environment designed to coexist with the real environment, with the goal of being informative and providing additional data about the real world, which a user can access without having to do a search. For example, industrial AR apps could offer instant troubleshooting information when a handset is aimed at a piece of failing equipment.

While both virtual reality and augmented reality are designed to bring a simulated environment to the user, each concept is unique and involves different use cases.?In addition to entertainment scenarios, augmented reality is also increasingly being used by businesses, because of its ability to generate informational overlays that add useful, real-world scenarios.

How does Virtual Reality work??

To experience VR, you need to be immersed in the virtual world, which is why you need VR Goggles or a virtual reality headset (sometimes called virtual reality glasses) and a compatible phone or a specific virtual reality device.

To get these on your face, you need a mount, which is where you might have seen VR ‘Cardboard’ sets (and wondered how something so digital and new age can be facilitated by a cardboard box.)

Simply, VR headsets – also known as HMDs or head mounted displays – create the ‘screen’ around your face. Unlike watching a TV or a phone, as you turn your head and move up and down, your eyes should stay within the virtual scene.

These don’t have to be expensive and they don’t need to give you 360 degrees over coverage – unless you’re an owl, a 100 degree range of vision keeps the cost down and gives the same experience.

The cost comes in the lenses which are placed between your eyes and the pixels, which is why the devices are often called goggles.

These lenses focus and reshape the picture for each eye and create a stereoscopic 3D image by angling the two 2D images to mimic how each of our two eyes views the world ever-so-slightly differently.

In terms of delivery, the content is similar to that of a games console you already use, and images comes from a console via a simple HDMI, or it’s embedded into the headset already.

So what does virtual reality feel like?

A virtual experience includes three-dimensional images which appear life-sized to the user. A virtual reality application or device tracks the user’s head and eye movements and adjusts the on-screen display to respond to the change of perspective.

Virtual reality is not just about the visual experience; it’s augmented by sounds and device movement. In a virtual environment, “immersion” is the feeling of being inside that world and the depth of which the feeling is felt. Add the interaction with that environment, and we experience “telepresence”.

What is the future of Virtual Reality?

When it comes to digital marketing and advertising, you can bet that anything purchased by Facebook for $2 billion (Oculus Rift) will definitely start to creep into our lives as marketers look to connect with consumers through virtual reality digital marketing and virtual reality experiences!

According to a survey by L.E.K. Consulting, as many as 80% of consumers who consider themselves early tech adopters ‘are interested in using VR to enhance their shopping experience’.

It’s a trend that retailers are keen to move with and in October 2020, Walmart’s eCommerce CEO Marc Lore said that in the next decade he sees ‘a future where consumers can experience in-store interactions via VR in their homes.’

IKEA has already started trialing a virtual test kitchen, and Mastercard and Swarovski have put their efforts into a VR shopping app that lets shoppers browse, learn about and purchase items.

Key Takeaways

It’s not just about looking at products. Jaguar have created a campaign that puts you, via VR, into Wimbledon, and Coca Cola created a virtual reality sleigh ride for their well-known ‘holidays are coming’ campaign in Poland.

When storytelling and being authentic is all key for today’s marketers, experiences even through VR could help overcome some of the challenges in running events and promotions.

Time will tell how VR could be utilised to create consumer generated content and experiences that feedback to the retailer, but for now it’s clear that future could certainly see more businesses, from clothing retailers to hotels and airlines using the technology to make booking or buying even easier. With reviews key to the online experience, VR could give a flavor of the real experience, before people commit their credit card details!

The AR & VR digital marketing campaigns mentioned above are a few of the successful examples that can inspire you. Technology evolves every day and if you don’t want to stay behind, you should embrace new opportunities always.