Top Articles: Leveraging the Next Phase of VR and AR
Week 30, 2017
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are still in their infancy — think mobile phones of the 1980s — so their true potential has not yet been accessed. Despite this, there is much debate about whether these experiences will survive or if they are just a fad. While it’s true that VR and AR have not yet been adopted into the mainstream, they do have a place in this world, but it might not be where you think. VR and AR are about to get a major technological overhaul, but they will need a cultural change to take off completely. Additionally, it’s worth mentioning that Apple could change the game by themselves with their new ARKit. Though it’s been out since June 5th at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2017, ARKit demos have been populating social media since then in a crazy race to show off before Apple’s next September keynote.
Here are the top articles to read this week:
1. VR Ads Are Almost Here. Don’t Act Surprised.
By Elizabeth Stinson from Wired
Passive ad watching and standalone marketing experiences in VR could soon be a thing of the past. VR development company Unity has announced the Virtual Room, a new type of interactive advertisement where users can enter a branded world with virtually unlimited ways to interact and connect with the brand. The goal is not to have a VR version of the 30-second video or display ads, but rather create a brand new advertising opportunity that aligns with the immersive VR experience.
2. Is the future VR … or AR?
By Eric Johnson from Recode
When consumer VR first entered the market, one of its main attractions was that it would become the next big entertainment experience. Since then, however, VR has remained largely niche in its adoption, and many believe that AR will actually be the next big thing, mostly due to popular apps like Snapchat and Pokémon Go. But is it really necessary or pertinent to choose between the two? Google VR boss Clay Bavor thinks we can have our cake and eat it, too. He argues that there is a spectrum of immersive experiences and that we should consider both virtual and augmented realities as just two points of a larger, more comprehensive experience.
3. Location-Based Virtual Reality Is The Next Big Bet for Movie Theaters, Malls
By Janko Rottgers from Variety
Sticker shock is a real thing when it comes to purchasing VR headsets and accessories. But while consumers might be reluctant to purchase VR accessories for themselves, there is clearly an appetite to at least try VR. This is where location-based entertainment comes in — you can experience virtual reality in an arcade-like setting instead of spending an arm and a leg for a similar setup at home. This idea of VR arcades is huge in China and is gaining a lot of traction in the US. In fact, Fox, Lionsgate, Paramount, IMAX, and Disney all have already invested in these types of experiences, so the success of location-based entertainment VR setups is really only limited by the creativity of publishers.
4. Google Glass Gets It Right the Second Time
By Leonid Bershidsky from Bloomberg
Google Glass 1.0 launched in 2013 at the height of the wearables boom, but it was years before the Augmented/Virtual Reality boom where it belongs. It was ahead of its time and left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth, but now Google thinks that it found the proper time and place for Glass 2.0: factory workers. It turns out that the mindset in Silicon Valley to aim for mass adoption immediately leaves a lot to be desired. Disruption might best be achieved through narrow focus first, mass adoption later.
5. Digiday Research: VR is still more hype than reality
By David Amrani from Digiday
For many agencies, VR experiences are limited to pop-up stunts where customers can only experience them at an event. This may explain why only a third of marketers have even used VR for client work — creating a whole new narrative experience for a single event doesn’t always seem worth it. The other option of integrating the brand into publisher VR content does not appeal to many marketers either because performance metrics are not yet standardized and the ROI would be unclear at best. However, turning VR into a marketing channel and/or advertising vehicle is a top priority among VR companies, so one of their main goals is to quell these hesitations.
6. Ready Player One Official Trailer
Probably the most popular book about VR, Ready Player One is being turned into a movie. In the newly released trailer, we get a glimpse at the full potential of VR, including location-based entertainment spaces, transmedia and immersive storytelling, and truly social VR. With all of these game-changing VR applications in a Hollywood blockbuster, this begs the question, could Ready Player One take VR mainstream? It’s certainly possible. This could be the cultural event that establishes VR as a valuable medium.
Curated by Hadley Stork
