Virtual reality may seem like a fad, but all signs show that it’s only going to keep growing. Here are a few ways you can use VR to market your brand.
Exciting and brimming with potential, the advent of virtual reality marketing gives you an opportunity to capitalize on a technology that hasn’t quite hit mainstream marketing. While marketers are still scratching the surface of marketing with virtual reality, a few pioneers have come up with creative ways to use the technology and highlight their unique selling propositions.
And make no mistake about it, virtual reality isn’t just a fad. According to Digi-Capital, “VR’s topline remains largely unchanged, with $30 billion forecast by the end of the decade.”
VR, and it’s cousin, augmented reality (AR), may be a little rough around the edges at present, but the success of games like Pokémon GO, as well as the successful marketing strategies of companies like McDonald’s, IKEA, and Coca-Cola, show that it’s well within any company’s ability to take advantage of the trend.
Below are 3 ways to leverage virtual reality for marketing.
- Use 360 Videos to Share Experiences
In 2016, we saw 360 videos make their way to YouTube and Facebook, allowing people to share experiences with a sense of full interaction. If you're watching a 360 video from your phone, you can pan the device, and the video on your screen will also move, creating a more immersive experience. When viewed through a VR headset, you can see your surroundings, just like in real life. If you’re watching on a computer screen, you can scroll the video to “see around” you.
But why bother with 360 videos?
As Michael Stelzner of the Social Media Examiner puts it, “Your brand can have an impact on the masses in a way that’s not been done before, because in a 360 video, the experience you provide in your message is more real to the viewer. You can share scale and scope with a canvas that’s so big, it takes over everything.”
Even law firms can benefit from 360 videos, especially if you can use them to show immersive interviews. Think of any experience you want to share with your firm’s audience, and there’s a good chance that 360 videos can enhance their scope.
- Use Virtual Reality to Educate Your Audience
When it comes to informing and educating audiences on social media, video has a more stimulating and engaging edge over text-based content. As Cisco predicted in 2016, “Video traffic will be 82 percent of all consumer Internet traffic by 2020.”
Virtual reality is a natural extension of the video experience. This presents an opportunity for brands to educate their audiences in new ways.
For example, if your company takes pride in your stringent manufacturing standards, VR can provide a way to give viewers a unique look into your production process.
For law firms, it can be a way to give clients an inside look at how you investigate cases, how you replay situations that involve crime and accidents, or simply, what happens behind the scenes on a daily basis.
- Live streaming on a More Immersive Scale
Imagine giving your audience the best seats to a ball game or any other event. With VR, your audience doesn’t just get to view these experiences on their computer and smartphone screens; they actually get to experience them as if they were there, in real time.
With virtual reality, you can give anyone in the world unique access to what it feels like to be with you at an event, regardless of distance. It’s a tantalizing development that has prompted the NBA to livestream games in VR to NBA LEAGUE PASS members, in what Sean Gregory of TIME notes is the first time “…an American pro sports league is broadcasting a regularly-scheduled series of live games in virtual reality throughout a season.”
Conclusion
The ability of virtual reality to make ordinary experiences more immersive and personal offers any organization the opportunity to make their products and services stand out. Even for B2B companies and specific niches like legal services, VR allows companies to share experiences in ways never been done before.
It’s the trade show, the site visit, or the product and service presentation that your customers need to see--but can’t due to time and distance--in a more immersive package. More importantly, this high-sensory experience gives marketing teams more control of their audience’s marketing journey. If you want to use visual cues to draw attention to a product feature, just add it to your VR experience. Want to show clients the lengths you go through to make high-quality products? It’s easy with virtual reality.
For law firms, virtual reality gives you the chance to humanize your brand, to show that, even though you're in a highly professional industry, you can still inform, educate, and even entertain your clients with new technology. In turn, this makes it easier to connect with potential clients on a more personal level.
If your law firm needs topnotch marketing services, get it from marketing experts who actually understand the law and the unique of the legal services industry.