As 2017 is about to come to an end, it has become imperative for the technology and gadget pros to go down the memory lane and find out which technology-driven gadget was in the news the most. Among the many consumer electronics, which remained the most talked device? This is the question that begs an answer.
The answer is VR, Virtual Reality. Virtual reality has been on the top as the ‘big technology’ over the past few decades. VR is even hot right now and is the buzzword for marketers.
VR is far greater than traditional media and allows an intense emotion. Based on Goldman Sachs’ prediction, the market for VR be worth $80bn (£56.8bn) by 2025, the opportunities are only going to get bigger. Most of that growth is expected to come from sales of VR headsets, games, and videos.
Just take a moment and think our communication hierarchy (in digital format) –
- We had started with reading texts and contents (Text graphics)
- Next upgrade was viewing both texts and graphics together (Infographics)
- Then we moved to videos (Graphics in motion)
- And now – virtual realities (Feel of the world that you are viewing)
The popularity of VR much is in the hype. Let’s find out how marketers are utilizing VR for projecting their products-
Virtual reality comes with an incredible opportunity for marketers to interact with customers and prospects in a more personal, experiential way than ever before.
Marketers are taking every opportunity to make prospects’ experience memorable and unique with their brand; which they can share on social media or tell their friends about and eventually which leads to word of mouth (WOM) marketing.
VR headsets are mostly possessed by avid gamers. And companies are choosing the gaming platform for commercial activity. This year the global market for VR headsets touched the billion dollar benchmark with about $700 million in hardware sales.
VR headset provides a fantastic experience to the user and gives an opportunity to build a relationship with the outside world within a virtual space, which is strikingly similar to how how people interact with their real world. VR could take you into the depth of a rain-forest. You could see the forest or look up to the canopy. The only thing is you would not feel the humidity, experience the smells or touch the vegetation.
Why will 2018 be the breakthrough year for VR headset?
1. Four VR headset ruling the multimedia market –
Oculus Rift, a unit of Facebook is the most famous company whose demand surplus its supply. In this year 2017, consumer brought the Merger VR headset for $130, the HTC Vive and the Sony Morpheus sold at $300 and $399 respectively. Last year about 12.1 million units sold out excluding the Google Cardboard, which is expected to be a gateway to the more detailed VR experience.
2. Brands are already over VR:
Compared to the number of people can actually access VR, it has caught the attention of many brands. So many brands like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Marriott, Volvo, and Virgin holiday, CMO of all these brands are hyper-aware of the new media platform. The cost of setting VR is not are as low as $50,000.
3. VR is an ideal storytelling platform:
With VR you get a mesmerizing experience of viewing a video in two dimensional. When you are watching a movie, then there remains a gap between you and your screen. But when a viewer is watching a movie in VR then the gap disappears, and it seems to the viewers that he or she is actually taking part in the action.
Learn any complex thing with ease:
The efficiency of our learning experience will increase by manifold whenever we learn something not only by hearing but also by listening to it and actually doing it. Virtual Reality gives us the opportunity to do and learn complex things simultaneously.
Applications and features in VR are endless, with that people can learn lots of thing with ease. People can ease the fear of height by walking on a tightrope or speaking in front of a large audience which helps to cope up with the fear of public speaking.
Virtual Reality is the radical new form of entertainment. In recent time any technology that require the user to wear something on the face haven’t experienced mass market success like Virtual Reality. Virtual Reality is a fantastic innovation of technology which can demonstrate the cutting edge of what technology is capable of doing today.
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