Marketing in the Virtual World

The Technology

Virtual Reality (VR) is becoming mainstream with affordable VR headsets fast flooding the mass consumer market. By the end of 2017, VR devices may well become as common place globally as the Tablet computer.

VR is now capable of bringing realistic visual experiences to users through 360-degree videos that can be streamed to VR headsets. Convergence with Augmented Reality (AR) further enhances the experience.

Just as VR, AR and 360-degree video technologies are converging to create realistic and immersive visual experiences for the common consumer and the internet’s convergence with the mobile phone has brought about the era of the Smartphone, it is a matter of time before VR technology converges with the internet to bring about the emergence of cybernetic space, where we have realistic visually interactive experiences in simulated or synthetic online or digital environment.

Online Virtual Worlds with animated 3D features have been around since the early 2000s. Some of them have been used been leveraged upon for promotion & advertising by well-known brands. Missing from the virtual worlds availed thus far though, preventing them from seeing phenomenal success and keeping them from reshaping the internet as yet, has been their technological limitations, including the interface. As technology progresses and evolves, those limitations can and will eventually be overcome. Especially with possibilities the introduction of realistic VR for interface in place of 3D animation promises ahead, despite an abysmal decline upon initial hype over their emergence, Virtual Worlds yet hold promise for re-emergence, with a vengeance, to conquer the worldwide web altogether.

The Scenario

Imagine waking up in the morning, sitting up in bed, putting on a headset and seeing yourself in locations around the world, witnessing developing events, as if you were there in person, with journalists right next to you in each location talking you through. You have the option to “teleport” from location to location, to seek out and be updated on developments of your interests, to be abreast with the news.

When you are done with the news, you “teleport” into an office, for a virtual secretary to brief you on your schedule, your pending items list and “to do” list for the day. You take your headset off, go shower and have breakfast. You recline into an armchair and put the headset back on. You are in a virtual meeting room with colleagues and clients negotiating a deal. Then you go into another meeting. And then another. When you have a break, you are in a virtual room with a large screen on which your emails are displayed one after another. You dictate replies to your emails verbally and your words are translated into text. When you are satisfied checking them, your emails are sent.

You dictate the drafting of a document on the virtual screen before you and send it to your boss before you go into the kitchen to cook yourself lunch. While your lunch is cooking, you put your headsets on to “teleport” yourself to the top of the Eifel Tower to enjoy the view of Paris.

You have your lunch when it is ready, and then return to work in the virtual space. You choose a simulated remote beach environment, with a virtual tablet before you, on which you dictate and craft a presentation. At the end of the work day, you “teleport” into a stadium and play virtual football with your friends, in a way that may not be actually physically possible for you offline.

After the game, you cook and have dinner. You then socialise in a virtual bar with friends and strangers. Just before bed, you play an interactive movie, which you are a part of. You then go to sleep. You have just spent a day in the virtual world, doing so much, without leaving home.

The Reality

Before your dismiss the scenario painted herein as far-fetched or something far away in the distant future, just remember, that much of what is possible with the commercialised consumer VR technology as of 2016, was not thought to be possible before 2030 by most people just five years ago. Driverless cars were not thought of as possible until the middle of this century by most people as many years ago, even though the first of such cars have been around since the 1980s, albeit in research stages mostly at academic institutions.

The trouble with technological evolution, is that those who are not in the know, including technology professionals, are susceptible to scepticism about its pace and progress. And it is always the few that are actually well informed early about the latest with any form of new technology. The vast majority of people, get updates on evolution of technology, when something makes the news, because a game changing product is just about to see market commercialisation.

The reality is, that the convergence of the internet with VR to bring about cybernetic space and therefore lifestyles revolving around virtual worlds, just the way our internet activity today revolves around Facebook and Google, is a possibility far more within reach than most would think or anticipate. That convergence therefore would like arrive far sooner, than most would anticipate, catching most people off-guard, where the opportunities or challenges are concerned.

The Marketing Implications

The convergence of VR and the internet would be a paradigm shift in our experience with connectivity and the worldwide web. The internet will be a lot more fun off course because of enhanced and extended uses along with the interface experiences. Along with that, the rules of marketing online or in cyberspace would change as well.

The pursuit of electronic marketing becomes more imperative, when the virtual world becomes so attractive and dominant, that it starts to displace conventional channels of consumer engagement such as television, radio, and print media and out of home advertising. With virtual worlds in cybernetic space providing a synthetic environment for virtually all routine activity, one needs no other channel and does not need to leave home as much. It will likely make both economic and practical sense, to rely just on the VR headset therefore, for the masses, ultimately.

Furthermore, with VR, each user may customise his or her virtual world experience to transcend accounts and platforms as well as to bypass channels or means available to marketers today for online advertising. Users may consciously and actively choose to place themselves beyond reach of online marketing, for an uninterrupted experience.

The Creative Solution

An old fashioned but effective marketing approach is that of word of mouth, through co-optation of influencers. And the Virtual Worlds of tomorrow will likely present unprecedented opportunities to marketers to make this approach work better, than it ever has before.

Online behaviour can be tracked and documented. And so too the outcomes and impacts. Key influencers in social circles online can be identified and recruited to mention, talk about and promote a company’s products in their online interactions with others, with monetary incentives for them to do so. Each desirable mention by a recruited influencer can be tracked and logged. For the success rate of an influencer’s efforts, the behaviours of other users in his or her circles can be tracked to see if they further promote or sell on the products or change their buying or spending habits in favour of the product that is promoted.

Each influencer can be trained to influence their circles within the virtual worlds, whether in a professional work setting or a social setting, to subtly name drop or suggest products in conversations. If interest is garnered, the influencer can direct other users to more information and overview of the product within the virtual space created for the brand concerned. This can be in the form of a theatre where a prospective consumer is educated on the product through film or a virtual store that users can walk through and get realistic 360-degree views of products and their functions.

The strategy here, is not about selling, between persons. The strategy, is about product placement into conversations, just as we see product placements in movies today. The placement into conversations can reinforced with visual representation, such as logos, taglines or images on virtual objects, such as on apparel worn by the influencer’s online avatar.

This is a strategy that can allow marketers to penetrate specific and targeted social circles directly. And performance tied incentive systems for influencers can prove highly cost effective as opposed to current online marketing models based on clicks or forced ad views.

Ultimately, it is not about reinventing the wheel. It is about evolving existing creative marketing techniques, to adapt to the creative evolution of technology shaping our lives.

Harish Shah is a Singaporean Professional Futurist and Management Strategy Consultant. He runs Stratserv Consultancy. His areas of consulting include Strategic Foresight, Marketing and Branding.