AR, VR & XR for advertising and Marketing II: Technology
This is the first of a cycle of entries surrounding virtual reality, augmented reality and extended reality, which makes a revision on expectations, best practices and challenges of these technologies applied to advertising and marketing.
After the hype this technology had some years ago, which resulted in some successful business and some other less fortunate, it is correct to say that some of the biggest companies in the industry (PlayStation, Oculus, Vive) are beginning to come close to massive, accessible and comfortable distribution strategies. Oculus Quest and Google Daydream are excellent examples of equipment that aim to autonomy and provide a high quality experience without implying extra costs and logistic difficulties of high-end devices like Vive-Pro.
Portable devices, besides from the ones mentioned before, include amongst them Cardboard and Samsung Gear Vr. They are ideal for brand activations and events because they don’t require computation equipment on separate and it is possible to have big amounts of devices simultaneously. Scenarios like selling points, conferences, stands, concerts and mobile brand activations are ideal for this kind of technology.
For more sophisticated applications that require a high graphic performance or more freedom in the interaction on the side of the user, it is necessary to count on a more sophisticated system. This type of device requires more elaborate contents, a greater space of operation and imply transport and more equipment renting. However, the additional efforts are rewarded by giving the user a highly inmersive, shocking and unforgettable experience.
The previous recommendations are valid in the case this supposition is true: Almost none visors or VR compatible devices at home, offices, etc. How accurate this is to a local level is really hard to know, because in latin America there are no statistics specialized services that allow to know the amount of imported or bought visors. However, taking into account the list of compatible Cardboard devices, the most basic platform to VR, and the statistics of mobile phone selling, in this case Colombia that assures that at least 50% of the population don’t have access to a smartphone, it can be deduced that a considerable segment of the Colombian market has a compatible device with this technology. The next question is: How to get to this segment and reach the usage of the content. The question about how to distribute a Vr content in a massive way will be analized in a future blog, specifically focused on distribution. For now we conclude with the next insight:
Insight: There are VR devices in the current market that allow us to make brand activations and BTL events in a small, medium and large scale, that are accessible in logistic and economic ways without sacrificing the impact and rememberability of the experience.
Next blog Will be: AR, VR and XR for advertising and marketing II: Content.
If you want to learn more about Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, don’t forget to visit our web page.
By: juan Felipe Cristancho.