5 Awesome Ways VR Has Been Used in Marketing
Virtual Reality or VR has been sneaking up on us for a while now, gradually making an impression on our daily lives. With the new, more affordable headsets such as the Oculus Rift being available, an increasing number of people are considering VR to be something that has a place in their daily lives. This popularity has led to marketing companies considering the potential of the technology and here are five example of how VR has already been used in marketing.
4D driving with Hyundai
If you have ever wanted to try out rallying but aren't so sure about the actual driving part, then Hyundai have created the perfect answer. For the World Rally Championships, they have created a 4D driving experience based around the Oculus Rift that will allow fans to feel as if they are really driving one of the company's rally cars around the course. The headset is worn alongside a motion platform that can even create up to 0.5g for a realistic feel when using the simulator.
Join the cast of Suicide Squad
To promote the release of their new Suicide Squad movie, Warner Bros have created a new VR experience that will be available at a number of events over the next weeks and months. These include the San Diego Comic Con, taking place at the Hard Rock Hotel. While exact details are being hidden by the company until the event, it is believed that the experience will use VR headsets to allow fans to immerse themselves in the movie, experience live-action fighting and other events and even get a tattoo! There is also a cosplay content that started last month where fans can create their own version of the characters for a chance to win a visit to the Comic Con event.
Visit Pluto with the New York Times
Following the amazing images of the planet Pluto that were released earlier this year, the New York Times distributed some 300,000 Google Cardboard viewers to subscribers of their newspaper. The viewers were used with a VR video called Seeking Pluto's Frigid Heart and meant you could explore the planet, seeing it as if you were on the New Horizons probe that flew past the outer planets.
They also released another VR piece that involved climbing the spire of 1 WTC in New York, allowing subscribers a glimpse of the city from the newest and most amazing view point in a way that a normal photography cannot manage.
View a destination with Qantas
Ever wondered what a place looked like before you booked to go there? Well, Qantas is now offering the chance to view certain locations through a VR headset. Their use of the new technology started with a pilot program that offered headsets to travellers in first class to show a number of destinations including the Great Barrier Reef. This is now being extended to locations such as the Kakadu National Park, offering travellers inspiration for their next journey and whetting their appetites.
Travel to exotic locations with Marriott
Marriot Hotels made use of VR technology to showcase exotic locations in the hope that people would be inspired to book their hotels in these places with the use of a phone booth type idea. People could step into the booth, don a VR headset and see what it would be like to be sitting on a beach in Hawaii as well as visiting locations such as China, Rwanda and even Chile. Their plan was then extended to using the headsets in hotel rooms to show guests other locations that the company could offer accommodation, again to tempt them to consider making a booking.
