VR beyond games and videos, why we need to be cautious

Isobar Brazil’s Eduardo Battiston on ‘VR beyond games and videos, why we need to be cautious’.

V and R are probably the two most pronounced letters here in Cannes, and it is not randomly. Virtual Reality is a new and powerful media, with almost infinite possibilities. And the best is: it is a technology about to become popular very quickly.

However, we — marketers and advertisers — have a tendency: to adapt things that we already do every time a new media or a new technology arrives. And because of that, the VR discussion, at least for now, sums up in two old friends: games and videos. Therefore, I would like to share a few thoughts about experiences in VR for brands:

We have to be very careful about advergames. By the beginning, they can even surprise people, the same way many brands had success with games for smartphones before the big studios get to this market. I say this because Sony will launch very soon the PlayStation VR with incredible games and the comparison will be inevitable.

Another point for this is that 3D audio is as much important as what the person sees. On the lecture of Dr. Richard Marks, from PlayStation Magic Lab, he confirmed that his audio team has the same amount of people as the visual effects team. However, maybe the most important for the brands, is logic being much more about creating experiences platforms than creating a punctual VR video for a campaign.

Of course VR experiences are much more than only games or videos. It goes beyond the marketing universe. I confess I am anxious to start seeing more innovative uses of this media in the next months. On medicine, for example, is already being tested the use of virtual reality to treat patients with phobias and traumas. The application potential of technology for education is huge, especially when it happens the popularization of content streaming in VR.

Summing up, another revolution is just starting. One of the many revolutions that we are going to witness in the next decade. I don’t know about you, but I am loving it.

Eduardo Battiston, Chief Creative Officer, Isobar Brazil

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