Thanks to the constantly changing digital landscape, advertisers have been forced to get more and more creative with their advertisements, all while looking for the next great advertising idea. Now that virtual reality headsets are rising in popularity, the next step seems clear: VR ads. Virtual reality users are a captive audience: they’re fully immersed, and they aren’t going to take a headset off until they’re done—not even because of an ad.
Unfortunately, like any other new and shiny piece of tech, a decent VR set has a hefty initial price tag and doesn’t have the most sophisticated features or the largest following right now. These headsets range anywhere from the $20 Google Cardboard, to the $100 Samsung Gear VR and the $800 HTC Vive. Despite the costs, publishers and advertisers are already buying in. The New York Times has a VR Editor, CNN has streamed political debates in VR, and USA Today Network has produced over 40 pieces of VR content since 2014.
For advertisers, the appeal of VR is clear. In a world of ad blocking and ad blindness, VR offers a fully viewable and entertaining experience—if it’s done right.VR also offers unique features that allow advertisers to track eye movements in order to know exactly what parts of the screen viewers are looking at and the parts they’ve chosen to interact with.
However, while VR presents a unique opportunity for advertisers to reach a completely immersed audience, it also means they have to create ads that people don’t mind watching or interacting with. After all, there are no ad blockers for VR (yet). With VR, consumers are going to be much less forgiving of an invasive or boring ad than they would if they saw the ad elsewhere and could easily click out of it. If VR is done right by advertisers, though, it could lead to much higher forms of user engagement by offering consumers more opportunities to interact with content.
Unfortunately, like any other new and shiny piece of tech, a decent VR set has a hefty initial price tag and doesn’t have the most sophisticated features or the largest following right now. These headsets range anywhere from the $20 Google Cardboard, to the $100 Samsung Gear VR and the $800 HTC Vive. Despite the costs, publishers and advertisers are already buying in. The New York Times has a VR Editor, CNN has streamed political debates in VR, and USA Today Network has produced over 40 pieces of VR content since 2014.
For advertisers, the appeal of VR is clear. In a world of ad blocking and ad blindness, VR offers a fully viewable and entertaining experience—if it’s done right.VR also offers unique features that allow advertisers to track eye movements in order to know exactly what parts of the screen viewers are looking at and the parts they’ve chosen to interact with.
However, while VR presents a unique opportunity for advertisers to reach a completely immersed audience, it also means they have to create ads that people don’t mind watching or interacting with. After all, there are no ad blockers for VR (yet). With VR, consumers are going to be much less forgiving of an invasive or boring ad than they would if they saw the ad elsewhere and could easily click out of it. If VR is done right by advertisers, though, it could lead to much higher forms of user engagement by offering consumers more opportunities to interact with content.
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