The future of marketing is customer experience. Virtual reality is a technology that can potentially achieve this shift with the proliferation of VR headsets and mobile devices.

Let’s first look at things in perspective on some issues that digital marketing faces today.

The average click-through rates on digital ads have plummeted globally to 0.06 per cent

Whenever you or I see a sponsored post, we just scroll past them.

When you see a You Tube ad, you are desperately waiting to hit the Skip Ad button.

The impact of interruption and zapping of ads in digital media is far more catastrophic than in traditional media as consumers have the controls. Hence, digital marketing needs to build content and brand stories that are immersive and engaging, if this form of marketing needs to grab the attention of digital consumers. This is where virtual reality comes in.

Before we can see how the world of VR will change digital marketing, there is a common misconception or confusion between AR (augmented reality) and VR. These terms are used interchangeably many times. It is important to understand the distinction and hence their applications. AR applications use the ‘enhanced version of reality’ and they superimpose digital information on real images. A good example of AR will be usage, in, say, a B2B situation, where there is a ‘how to service’ booklet and using AR applications companies are able to build enhanced versions of various parts of the machine, ‘how to service’ images of various parts and the detailed drawings within the parts to replace and service them. There are ever so many uses which overlay digital on real images such as Pokemon GO, where AR is used. VR, however, is ‘building simulated immersive environments using technology’. VR applications are used in an animated or artificial manner and it is simulated, completely different from the reality in front of you. Examples of VR applications could be viewing the top of Mt. Everest in different angles, an undersea experience and so on.

Let’s examine the power of VR as a digital marketing solution and how brands can leverage this emerging technology. There are an estimated 43 million people using these devices, and this number is expected to quadruple in terms of usage in the next two years. It is expected to become mainstream for marketers in the next couple of years.

However, the digital marketing of the last decade was largely two-dimensional for marketers. It started with some great images/shots of brands either in blogs, websites, display ads, viral films and it has rapidly transitioned to videos of late. However, the brand experience is largely restricted to these formats. How will VR change the face of digital marketing? Let’s look at a few examples of how brands are reimagining their digital marketing with VR.

Immersive brand experiences

Oreo built a brilliant animated virtual world to promote its filled cupcake flavoured cookies. The experience was out of the ordinary. It had an animated virtual world with milk rivers and chocolate canyons. The film had over three million views and built a strong word-of-mouth with consumers.

There are similar examples with Mercedes, Expedia and Lipton doing similar immersive experiences with VR. These are excellent examples of building ‘near real life digital moments’ for brands. More and more brands will add such exhilarating experience to their brand story-telling in addition to print, online and video.

Virtual shopping experiences

Many retailers are building great digital experiences using VR. One great example is McDonald’s, which used a VR application in their ‘Happy Meals’ box to build a memorable and extended brand experience. They used Google Cardboard VR headset as a toy in their Happy Meals box. It is a game that came with a VR handset and enabled a fantastic simulated experience of a game – a recreational holiday for anybody who bought the Happy Meals Box.

In the retail sector, the usage of VR will be more widespread, especially with the explosion of e-commerce and online shopping. Alibaba in China launched a shopping experience called Buy+, which is a virtual reality shopping programme. This allows users to buy clothes and accessories and there are 3D renderings of a virtual shopping shelf or store. Consumers can buy via their VR headsets and there are also virtual shopping assistants who are around to help consumers when they want to buy.

Simulated customer engagement

Jaguar, the luxury automotive brand, built a brilliant brand property called ‘Feel Wimbledon’. They took their sponsorship of this tennis tournament to a different level, where they worked closely with Andy Murray to build an intricate customer engagement experience where the consumer can enter the body of Andy Murray as he wins the match point. This was promoted brilliantly in the run to the tournament and it created a huge buzz amongst consumers. Again, this is a brilliant example of connected offline marketing spends with online digital marketing customer engagement experiences.

Analytics-driven VR in-store experience

Uniqlo, the apparel retailer from Japan, has built a very innovative and interesting in-store experience using VR. It built an in-store neuroscience stylist – a wearable technology that was placed on the foreheads of shoppers. The shoppers were then shown a series of brand videos and simulated product images. Also, based on the brainwave reading, an algorithm was generated which recommended certain styles from Uniqlo! This is based on the state of mind of the shoppers then.

Marks & Spencer virtual rail

At a time when the costs of building large stores are becoming increasingly expensive, VR is a great platform for retailers to build digital store fronts. M&S built a virtual rail in their Amsterdam store with over 46 digital screens where shoppers could browse through the merchandise, check prices, watch a model wear them and order them through a click ‘and’ order model – thus saving huge costs through better inventory management, logistics, reducing stock-outs and more satisfied shoppers.

The key question brands need to ask themselves is how does VR fit into their overall digital marketing strategy. It cannot be a ‘flash-in-the-pan’ idea or a kind of a technology hype as this can lead to its own natural death. For example, asking relevant questions like what kind of digital experiences can make a difference to consumer decision-making during the purchase process, searching, choosing and buying, and how can VR help in accelerating this decision, could make VR integral to the digital enablement strategy. Or, what kind of digital brand experiences would they like to create to improve brand preference and extended customer engagement moments. This may be particularly relevant to soft goods or CPG brands. They could then fuse or fit in their digital marketing media spends with offline digital experiences in stores or their packs by having a VR strategy around this objective.

VR is here to stay as consumers will get more and more hooked to their digital devices. The per capita ownership of digital or mobile devices is only expected to increase in the years to come. So, brands need to reimagine ways to build VR experiences and integrate them with their existing physical or digital assets or build assets that can be VR-enabled. VR will add one more digital marketing currency for brands to look beyond CPM and more towards engagement.

(Swaminathan is Co-founder & CEO of Hansa Cequity)

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW