Virtual Reality: The Future Of Advertising

If there was any doubt before, Facebook’s $2 billion buyout of Oculus Rift confirmed that Virtual Reality advertising is going to be a major deal in the coming years.

Virtual Reality might be focused on the gaming industry right now, but the potential in general is mindblowing.
Each headset can replicate an IMAX cinema, and sporting events and concerts could sell pay-per-view VR tickets around the world. It isn’t just sports fans who are salivating, though: marketing executives around the world are chomping at the bit to open up this immersive experience and take the consumer into the heart of the stories that have become de rigeur in the world of content marketing of late. Soon, two dimensional advertising will seem, well, flat.
Forget ringside seats for the big fight – VR could take you into the heart of the action in the boxing ring, the football field and it could even give you a view from the ball in the Superbowl.
F1, meanwhile, uses green screens to allow different national broadcasters to screen their own ads, and also to allow the sale of ads in real-time to the highest bidder. Virtual Reality takes this to the next level, allowing for personalised advertising targeted to the individual.
The user’s own headset, much like an internet browser, will become the conduit for their own personalised advertising. What’s more, they’ll be able to experience a lap of Monaco or Indianapolis from inside the car in real time before long.
Almost any brand can take advantage of Virtual Reality. British brand Topshop used Oculus Rift to put its customers in the front row of its fashion show at the Tate Modern. While that was limited to the Oxford Street store, soon customers will be able to join celebrities on the catwalk from the comfort of their own home and turn every online clothing store into a living, breathing fashion show when the hardware prices fall within the reach of the home user.
Research firm MarketsandMarkets predicts that VR and augmented-reality hardware will generate $1.06 billion in revenue globally by 2018. Home sets are really that close and Oculus Rift’s mooted price point of $350 might even come down due to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s insistence that they should be priced low to ensure the system’s widespread adoption. It’s in his interests to have one in every home, so the big F of Facebook and its subsidiaries can be pushed upon all Rift owners.
Virtual Reality offers endless opportunities for the ultimate campaigns that simply could not happen in the current world. You can take the public to the edge of space, to an island paradise or the bottom of an active volcano. You can even resurrect dead celebrities and invite potential customers to dinner with Abraham Lincoln, Babe Ruth or Jimi Hendrix.
Brands are already working on their Virtual Reality game. Mountain Dew’s ‘Do the Dew’ experience took the press and clients skateboarding through Las Vegas with legend of the sport Paul Rodriguez. It’s a technology in its infancy, but it shows the immersive experience that brands can offer that goes well beyond the traditional 2D display advertising.
Coca-Cola, meanwhile, allowed participants to actually play on a World Cup pitch from the comfort of the dressing room. It’s creating an impossible experience that will mark Virtual Reality advertising apart. It’s content marketing on an unprecedented level rather than traditional advertising, and brands will compete fiercely to create experiences that the consumer actively seeks out. The interruptive model of advertising will come to an end and marketing will become an almost exclusively inbound activity.
Then there is Facebook, which has the potential to bring people together no matter what the distance between them. Taking the social network off a flat computer screen and essentially bring everybody together through the VR headset has mind-boggling potential.
As the social network has increasingly focused its efforts on advertising, it will be fascinating to see how this global powerhouse incorporates personalised adverts into its own unique experience and invites brands into a personal meeting between friends and family without becoming intrusive.
Nobody knows the true potential of Virtual Reality, but we know that it will change the world of marketing forever. With the might of Facebook, the world’s leading brands and some of the brightest minds on the case already, though, we’re finally facing a total revolution in the way we interact with the products we are going to buy.