Virtual Reality: The Next Big Thing for PR and Marketing

 

Virtual reality (VR) offers an immense PR and marketing opportunity.

VR reality offers 360-degree, three-dimensional videos.  It’s displayed on headsets from Samsung Gear VR, Facebook’s Oculus Rift, Sony PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, or a cardboard device which Google distributes free of charge. Undoubtedly, more VR devices will be introduced soon.

Viewers can also see 360-degree videos online, although VR headsets provide a far more engrossing experience. Viewers feel as if they are fully immersed in the experience, be it playing a video game, watching a concert, or climbing a mountain.

The New PR and Marketing Frontier

Many predict that virtual reality will become the new PR and marketing frontier this year. Marketing agencies only recently began to embrace the technology and tout it as one of the tools they offer. The travel industry, having the most obvious benefits, appears to be the first sector to adopt the headsets for promotional purposes.

Marriott showed customers 3-D views of Hawaiian beaches and downtown London, marketing the campaign with the #GetTeleported hashtag. Dolly Parton’s theme park, Dollywood, in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., created a VR experience to market its new Lightning Rod rollercoaster. Carnival Corp.’s new Fathom brand, which plans what’s known as voluntourism, is preparing VR productions of people engaged in activities.

“VR is taking the world by storm, similar to what mobile did seven years ago,” Abi Mandelbaum, CEO of YouVisit, told the AP. “Virtual reality is the most realistic experience you can have of a place without being there. It’s powerful. It gets people excited and engaged and interested in having that experience in real life.”

Videos Become Experiences

YouVisit has more than 300 VR videos, or “experiences,” for destinations, such Vatican City and Mexico’s Grand Velas Riviera Maya.

“It is the next big thing,” Lourdes Perez at the communications consultant firm Newlink told the AP. Since VR tools are still rare, PR firms like Newlink provide the headsets to try at trade shows and other venues.

Will the realistic experiences prompt viewers to forego the real travel experiences?  Mandelbaum thinks not. More than 1,000 people tried the headsets for Carnival Cruise in tents YouVisit set up in New York City. After learning what they can do on cruises, they became likely to book.

Brands outside the travel business are also exploring VR. The North Face created a VR experience of a Yosemite National Park mountain climb that it showed to customers in New York and San Francisco. “It’s a great way to evolve storytelling and shows how much marketing has changed because of the proximity people have to very sophisticated technology in their smartphones,” said Eric Oliver, the North Face’s director of digital marketing, said at a conference, according to the Holmes Report.

VR in PR Media Pitches

In a couple years, PR pros may be including VR videos in their media pitches, predicts Shel Holtz of communications firm Holtz Communication + Technology. Including a VR element could substantially increase a pitch’s chance of obtaining media attention, he predicts. PR can also include VR videos in its online corporate media sites to offer tours of company facilities or other footage.

PR pros should be nervous because they haven’t even started experimenting with the technology while media outlets like The New York Times, with its Walking New York experience, and marketing agencies are forging ahead.

“PR needs to start taking it seriously and experimenting with ways to use the fast-growing technology to satisfy the needs of the media and other stakeholders,” Holtz blogs.

PR firms have been slow to adopt new technologies, like the Internet and social media networks, in the past. It may show the same reaction with VR.

“I feel the way about virtual reality the way I feel about great content — it has to be explored,” said Alexander Jutkowitz, founder of content shop Group SJR, (which was purchased by H+K Strategies), the Holmes Report noted. “I’m bullish on this. I think from a PR perspective, agencies aren’t aware of what’s going on here.”

Bottom Line: Calling virtual reality “the next big thing,” more brands and marketing agencies are embracing the immersive, 360-degree video experiences. Technologically adept PR agencies may also soon begin touting their VR capabilities to clients.