VR in Ads: Where the Real Creative Power Lies

There’s a lot of talk about how virtual reality (VR) can impact advertising, but despite the huge opportunity, we have only scratched the surface of its potential.

VR really does offer the chance to create a new immersive type of brand engagement, and some agencies are already pushing the envelope and experimenting with live‐streamed, 360‐video and VR, while blending in augmented reality (AR) and embedded e-commerce opportunities.

However, for the most part, people are restricted by a lack of knowledge. As a sector we need to stop talking just about headsets and gaming and instead focus on how we can establish VR as a powerhouse creative tool that will change the customer experience.

The reality is that agencies need to find solid VR partners that have a track record of delivering engaging experiences. They should not get sucked into focusing on producing graphically‐led content that is simply a reproduction of what has been going on in computer gaming for years.

At a ‘VR in advertising’ event I recently attended, the talk was not about the creative opportunities that VR brings to advertising, but instead about looking at rendering techniques for graphics. This is something we have known about for 20 years, and it is not helping VR move forward.

If we are to truly realise the power of VR in the advertising space, we need to move perceptions beyond gaming and seeing YouTube as the only mechanism for delivery of 360 content.

While Facebook is also moving into this space, implementations are still at an early stage, and neither company is the real deal yet. They may have large audiences, but there are currently better solutions on the market.

But all's not lost. There are smaller more agile companies and technologies out there that offer much more powerful VR experiences through apps that can be white‐labelled and embedded on websites or downloaded onto smartphones. These create a more compelling and affordable reason to use VR.

The challenge VR technology providers face is to educate creatives and directors as to the existence of a whole ecosystem of platforms out there beyond the obvious big players. An ecosystem that allows stored- and live-VR content to be delivered direct to the consumer via mobile devices.

Ultimately, it is the creatives, directors and producers that will truly be able to make VR reach its potential. They are the ones who will come up with new ideas as to how this technology can be used to create engaging brand experiences.

This is how we will see more emotional and engaging content being created. At the end of the day it all comes down to creatives being able to see the potential of VR and use it in their brainstorming sessions. We need to make it easier for them to come up with ideas and throw off the shackles on their creativity.