Bringing the virtual world to marketing

At first, headgear like the Oculus was purely for gaming, making first-shooter games like a real-life warzone. Now, brands are beginning to look past all that, and focus on how virtual reality (VR) can be used for marketing.

So how do advertisers market a product in a virtual world in our real world? Well, there have already been some awesome campaigns regarding this. DreamWorks promoted How to Train Your Dragon 2 where fans could put on the Oculus headgear and feel what it's like to fly the medieval creatures. You can even experience a front row seat of a Paul McCartney concert, and possibly see any big band in the future this way. The content is there, it just needs to be used.

Image by Josh Adams via Cape Town ETC

VR brings with it a whole new playing field in the content-creation game. Marketers need to start thinking about how to put forward their brands' story in an immersive, compelling and no doubt, highly technical way. One of the big buzzwords these days is "storytelling", and what better way to get consumers involved in a brand or campaign than to immerse them into that story? Let them be a part of it.

Pre-CR vs post-CR

According to Sense of Space, there are two ways marketers should be looking into virtual reality.

The first is pre-CR (pre-consumer release), where the novelty of this new technology is still a hot topic among consumers. If you have an Oculus for consumers to try out, even if it is advertising your brand, it'll no doubt leave some kind of memorable impression in their mind, and get them telling all their friends about it.

The post-CR (post-consumer release) phase is when headsets like the Oculus are already available for consumers (set for 2016). What will make consumers want to buy this expensive equipment if they're not going to use it for gaming? Marketers will need to whet the appetite of their consumers to let them know what they can expect. Brands should really be engaging with this technology already, even sponsoring content. Imagine going on a virtual safari, sponsored by NatGeo. Documentaries could have a whole a new meaning to them. I'm looking at you, Cosmos...

Apart from it being a novel business, it also has the potential of being a lucrative one. According to AdAge, VR manufacturers are expected to make $1.6bn by 2018.

As we all know, Facebook bought Oculus last year for a 'mere' $2bn, and will no doubt create some kind of virtual social network, which could be a further selling point for the headgear. I'm thinking something like Second Life, but with better graphics...

Bringing your product to the consumer

There's copious amounts of possibilities for brands in different sectors - automotive, tourism, property (consumers seeing the inside of a house without even driving there), restaurants can even get involved, as well as education, where students can see what their teachers are actually teaching them - think of it as a modern day Magic School Bus (90s kids will get the reference).

For now, marketers should invest in the "pop-up" experience where consumers can test virtual reality. Coca-Cola did an amazing campaign where lucky soccer fans got a taste of being on the field in the last World Cup, which will likely be the way the FIFA game is going. HBO gave Game of Thrones die-hards the real climbing of the wall experience at SXSW 2014, and Marriott Travel, which is being unbelievably innovative with VR, teleported newlyweds to different honeymoon destinations for them to make a physical choice. Amazing!

Oculus has become so much more than just gaming, so what do you think? Is virtual reality the next big thing for advertising and marketing? Or will the novelty wear off soon after it's released next year? Your thoughts...