Taking the right route to VR

VR in experiential marketing

Recently, at one of the biggest experiential industry conferences of the year, you couldn’t turn a corner without being faced by VR in some form – a vendor sales pitch, an agency case study or live brand experience.  For me – and no doubt my fellow marketers – it was an education. The full A-Z on how to (and how not to) use the technology.  What a relief.

Until now we’ve felt like we should be on the VR train, but have been reluctant to leave the platform.

Our business is about bringing brands ‘to life,’ providing a vibrant and positive assault on the senses.  It feels counter-intuitive to invite consumers to (more often than not) sit down, cover their eyes and find themselves in a virtual world – which rarely lives up to the promise…or the real world that surrounds them.

In too many cases, it seems the desire for an ‘innovative campaign’ has led to briefs with VR rather than the consumer at the center, and so inevitably, the final experience falls short.  Fundamentally, the inclusion of this technology isn’t a guarantee of success.  Success comes from using the tool to radically enhance or provide layers to the story already being told.  VR isn’t THE story.

A brilliant example is the award-winning American Express campaign (pictured above), that gave attendees of the 2015 American Open the chance to face Maria Sharapova, and tackle her famous 100mph serve. This physical ‘money can’t buy’ moment was experienced by thousands over the course of the event, but in real reality it is a dream very few would be able to achieve.  Amex wanted to show potential customers that they would always go the extra mile for them – don’t just watch your favorite athletes, play against them!

Another came from Ford, who used Mixed Reality to virtually peel back the layers of body work on cars at Auto Shows, to reveal their inner features.  A ‘surprise and delight’ moment, that wowed audiences during live demonstrations, and provided access to parts of the vehicles not normally visible.

In both examples, the latest technologies were utilized using experts from all over the world, suggesting that budgets were plentiful. However, despite the proportion of investment in technology, it didn’t dominate – it simply helped the brands tell a better story and put customer curiosity and ambition at the heart of their experiences.

Looking ahead, the ability to even more closely measure consumer reactions to our activities through VR is incredibly exciting, and another step forward for experiential.  To understand exactly how a user is going through an experience, down to the level of eye tracking, pauses, hand gestures and heat mapping, will enable us to adapt and evolve concepts in minute detail – to achieve maximum consumer satisfaction.  This really does feel like the holy grail.

Finally, we’re on board.

Sarah Priestman is President of Sense New York.

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5th Floor Century House
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Discover our latest guides to help brighten your brand experience strategy or amplify your shopper marketing moves. Get them here at The Futures Lab.

London

5th Floor Century House
100 Oxford Street
London
W1D 1LN

New York

243 E 14th
#2 C/O SQ
New York
NY 10003

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Discover our latest guides to help brighten your brand experience strategy here at The Future Lab

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Experiential

Whether it be Festivals, Trade Shows, PR Stunts, Installations or Pop Ups to name a few, we believe brand experiences are one of the most powerful forms of marketing to impact consumer perception and attitude towards a brand. They can create real behaviour change when born out of a deep consumer insight allied to a compelling idea. And it’s these fundamentals we look to get right whatever the live, virtual or hybrid task in hand.

Sampling.

Sampling is all too often perceived as an unsophisticated, somewhat ‘blunt’ marketing tool. Over the last 16 years Sense has pioneered a set of strategic principles which underpin our unique approach to sampling and which are highly measurable from both an ROI and consumer behaviour change perspective. We will happily guide brands through the myriad of sampling channels and products available so whether it’s mass face to face sampling, in offices, digitally, at home or just a strategic framework that you are after, we can provide a blend of tactics to fulfil both brand and sales objectives.

Retail.

With many clients now focused on activating in channels more closely associated with a sale, our heavyweight retail experience closes the loop on a typical shopper journey by encompassing the moment of truth in store. Be it prize promotions, shopper toolkits, key visual creation, path-to-purchase communications, category strategy, B2B campaigns or Amazon optimisation, our goal is to create forward-thinking retail experiences that deliver demonstrable brand value. We aim to make ‘retail fail’ a thing of the past for ambitious brands looking to thrive is an ever-competitive landscape and believe our streamlined team is perfectly placed to do this.

Foresight.

Knowing what will keep a brand bright, exciting, and vital means we need to keep one step ahead of the curve. Our thought leadership hub, The Futures Lab, helps us to understand the marketing trends of tomorrow. It’s also the origin of strategies and methodologies which have created over 65 award-winning campaigns. 

Rigour.

Creativity is nothing without results. And we know that commissioning bold concepts, capable of changing minds, requires reassurance that it’s the right thing to do. 

Data, insights, and research precedes every campaign we do, and our proprietary measurement tool, EMR, gives us a decade of campaign performance metrics. Which is why we’re proud to have been recognised as industry-leading by brands like The Economist, Coca-Cola, and Molson Coors. 

Trust.

We believe brand experience is inherently more varied than other forms of marketing. No formula, no template, no cookie-cutter approach – and often no precedent. 

That’s why, Sense places trust at the heart of its business – grounded in teamwork between our people and yours. Our processes are efficient, our senior team stay involved and our partnership mentality had helped us sustain powerful client relationships, some lasting over 10 years.