How AR and VR Can Help Your Business
It is the future of marketing
Only a decade ago, using technologies like augmented reality (AR) and Virtual reality (VR) was expensive, and thus the market was virtually nonexistent. Now, virtual reality is an exciting technology for developers and consumers alike. The VR and AR markets have enormous growth potential. Consistent with Statista, the marketplace for VR software and hardware will grow to $40 billion. This year alone, they project the market will grow to $12.1 billion, doubling last year’s figure.
The VR and AR markets are set to grow, so there’re many rooms to enter the space. Albeit you’re not looking to enter those markets directly, there are many ways VR could help your company, especially in B2C, and thought of purchase contexts.
VR/AR Potential: Realized
Using VR/AR to plug your company is simpler than you think. Hardware is far cheaper, and as a result, many consumers are taking part in these technologies. Developing an app that’s associated with your existing products or services is often an excellent thanking to market your product. VR and AR apps have populated Android and Apple app stores.
IKEA has used AR, for instance, to permit you to put furniture in your home. All the user has got to do is download the app, browse products, and point their phone’s camera at the space they’d wish to test out. Consumers are ready to interact with products without ever setting foot within the store. Sephora developed an identical application, during which a user points the sweetness app at their face and may try different makeup products virtually.
Storytelling as Strategy
Augmented reality isn’t the sole marketing tool, either. There are several samples of integrating virtual reality into storytelling. Bjork, the avant-garde pop artist, used VR to make interesting 360-degree music videos. The user needs a Google Cardboard headset and a smartphone to be transported into the music video. She received an excellent deal of press thanks to this integration, which helped her promote her album.
The New York Times, and other prestigious, storied newspapers, have struggled to remain relevant within the digital age. As readership slumped and subscriptions dropped, the medium had to consider innovative ways to realize readers. The New York Times has done well to remain relevant on the web by improving upon their digital and online editions and by attracting new readers through experimentation.
One such experiment is NYTVR, The New York Times’ VR series of stories. In these VR stories, readers are transported. Rather than reading about Syrian refugees, you’ll travel alongside them, virtually. Viewers immerse themselves, forming much stronger, far more visceral, empathetic reactions.
Looking Ahead
You need not be an enormous furniture chain, a pop singer, or an outsized newspaper to use VR to assist your business though. You don’t even need to develop your own app to completely realize the prevailing VR and AR technologies. Being hospitable using VR and AR to enhance your design processes can help designers, managers, and office workers make innovative products, improve workflow, or come up with new management ideas.
VR can help your business in manifold ways. How you select to use VR is totally up to you. Being hospitable in exposing yourself and your employees to the technology can assist you to come up with some rather innovative ideas and styles. VR and AR apps also can assist you to reach your target market in new and interesting ways, and therefore, are great for marketing. VR also can help your customer know your product or service differently. Like The New York Times is using VR to reinvent the news article, you’ll use VR to reinvent your product.
Get to understand VR and AR apps, expose your company to the technology, and consider using the technology to enhance your marketing efforts, your design efforts, and your product or service as an entire.
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