Is Virtual Reality the Next 3D?
Do you remember when 3D TV was going to be the next big thing? We were all going to wear 3D glasses at home and experience extra-dimensional imagery. The problem was we didn’t like wearing the glasses and the experience wasn’t worth the extra money.
Now virtual reality, or VR, is the hot trending topic and many will jump into it just because it is new. But what are the implications for marketers? McDonalds recently explored VR with Happy Meal boxes that converted to VR viewers using a smart phone. According to Advertising Age, VR is expected to be a more than $1 billion business in 2016.
VR has the potential to be a totally immersive experience. It has so much more depth than a regular video and it has the ability to shut out all competing noise. It certainly works best for games, but imagine how marketing in the travel industry will change, or selling a home (you can walk to through an entire home and even look into cabinets from the comfort of your couch). Imagine test driving a car without ever visiting the dealership.
Some people believe that 360-degree video is the same as VR. However, VR is totally immersive, allowing people to interact with the created surroundings through a head-mounted display. 360 video can be viewed through a display, but mostly it is viewed through Facebook and YouTube without a headset. 360 is impressive, but not as immersive as virtual reality.
Virtual reality is coming. Just know that your great big story idea needs to be developed first, then determine if it fits the VR medium. VR is so immersive, it makes some people seasick, but if the storytelling is off, it will make your marketing budget even sicker.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.