Over the course of the past few months, there has been an increasing volume of stories pronouncing the impending arrival of virtual reality technology. Oculus VR, a company that is building virtual reality hardware, recently started conducting demos of its newest product, Oculus Rift. News outlets such as Tech Crunch and Ad Age among others have touted the quality of the product and experience. From a consumer perspective, it is easy to imagine some of the amazing opportunities offered by this new technology. It will conceivably provide "virtual access" to unique experiences and locations that were previously inaccessible to common consumers. From court-side seats at a sporting or music event, to the top of Mount Everest, the appeal of VR technology is readily apparent to consumers.
At the same time, the emergence of this technology will create meaningful new opportunities for digital marketers, but it will also require them to adapt and re-think their current digital methodologies. To this point, particularly as relates to digital video experiences, marketers have largely been focused on advertising that exists outside of the ecosystem of the content being consumed. However, Virtual Reality will provide an opportunity for immersive experiences, whereby the marketing materials can be built directly into the experience itself. This could many different forms, including in-experience sponsorship, visual marketing akin to real-life billboards, but it also could be innovative such as virtual goods that mimic real-life products. It's possible that the best use case for advertisers will be a new model, and will require true innovation and vision on the part of marketers. While the technology itself is not likely to become widespread for a few years, it's important that marketers begin to think about its adoption, and the opportunities that it presents.
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