Tuesday, September 08, 2015

Discovery Ramps Up Virtual Reality to Drive Experiences

Discovery recently launched Discovery VR - a new app and website facilitates users to immerse in storytelling. For example, one of the videos give viewers a virtual look at gold mining operation. (Link: http://www.discoveryvr.com/#/watch/goldrush-pay-dirt/details).

Discovery is poised to make virtual reality a central part of its marketing strategy - already hiring eight people across its video production and content team to lead virtual reality campaigns.

The execution of virtual reality content is difficult - as it requires not only new camera capabilities, it also requires unique storytelling. Publishers are showing growing interest in virtual reality because it "generates empathy" for audiences. New York Times, for example, have already experimented with virtual reality on its web platforms. With Facebook's high profile acquisition of Oculus, virtual reality now has the momentum to become more mainstream, but it remains to be seen whether new publishers adopt virtual reality as the norm, especially after years of false starts.

I believe that the popularization of a hardware device (maybe Google's Cardboard platform) is the next step in making virtual reality the new way to consume, view, and experience content.

To read more: http://digiday.com/publishers/discovery-virtual-reality/


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