Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

There’s no question that many marketers are thinking about virtual reality (VR).

At a time when it’s harder than ever to capture users’ attention, VR gives brands the ability to create truly immersive experiences. Through 360-degree and VR films, marketers can whisk viewers away to Thailand, take them on the open road in New Zealand, or drop them in the middle of a house party.It’s no wonder that VR has been named one of the top trends that will affect digital marketing in 2017. Yet, VR requires a big investment. And a company must align on goals, strategy, distribution, and measurement plans before launching any VR initiative. 

If you’re among the many brands considering VR as part of your 2017 content marketing strategy, here are helpful data points to keep in mind and possibly build your business case, via this infographic from Marketo and Column Five..

The H&M-backed fashion house ivyrevel has teamed up with Google and Mediamonks to push the boundaries of wearable technology to new limits. The trio have created the data dress: a personalized garment designed by collecting information from users via a smartphone app. Aptly named ‘coded couture,’ the app uses Google’s awareness API—a recent development for smarter applications.

Announed at Google’s I/O developer conference last year, the new API facilitates the collection of data such as where you are, what you are doing, and even the local weather. This can now be employed by applications to react more intelligently to the current situation of every user. Already famous for their philosophy of merging fashion with innovative technology, swedish brand ivyrevel’s new app uses this personal information collected by Google for a seemingly alternative purpose – to create bespoke dresses.

The application tracks its user’s daily activities, and translates the information into fabric form. The result? A data-driven dress that is tailored exactly to the needs of the wearer....

Chatbots — AI-enabled messaging programs that respond to text-based requests — are the latest innovation that startups and corporations are using to serve existing customers and bring in new ones. Companies across a wide variety of industries are building these tools on popular messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, Slack, Kik, and Hipchat, as well as on their own websites and apps. Some are even available by text, to help users do things like fight parking tickets, respond to customer service inquiries, and order tacos.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, so if you see we’re missing a chatbot that’s currently up and running, please share the link with us in the comments section. We’ll add new, significant chatbots to the list over time.

Forget trying to design your deck, patio or porch with a drawing. Wayfair LLC is setting up outdoor furniture in another dimension.

The home furnishings retailer launched a virtual reality app to let consumers design an outdoor patio area. Wayfair debuted the app, Patio Playground, last week for consumers with the Oculus Rift 3-D gaming headset.In the app consumers can arrange patio furniture in a virtual setting, see how it looks from different angles and in various types of daylight. Wayfair has 85 products for consumers to place in the patio scene, and they can place up to 15 items in the setting at one time, says Mike Festa, head of Wayfair's research and development lab.

Consumers wearing an Oculus Rift headset can select a pre-configured patio, such as two chairs and a table with an umbrella, and then switch out the products, or they can build their patio layout from scratch, Festa says. ...

One day, we’ll have an entire Tumblr account for hilarious VR accidents, but until then, George Takei’s Facebook account will have to do. Takei, the Star Trek alum and current boss of sharing things on Facebook, recently shared a video of a man attempting to conquer a virtual cliff while inside an Oculus headset; it didn’t go well.

While climbing up a virtual mountain, the unnamed user had an unexpected fall — both in-game and in real life. The fall was a minor one, and it seems nothing is hurt but his pride.

The spill does outline a significant danger for virtual reality in that it might sometimes be too immersive. An immersive experience is what it’s all about, so it’s hard to suggest companies dial it back. Instead, maybe some genius out there can come up with a way to keep headset-wearers safe while they’re saving the world from pixelated zombies, or viewing some VR porn....

At CES this week, marketers were buzzing about the potential of virtual assistants.

“Marketing is much more about providing a great experience or a product that makes a consumer’s life easier and one of the most interesting developments for our business is the virtual assistant,” said Kristin Lemkau, CMO of J.P. Morgan Chase.

Most of the attention at was on Alexa, the voice-activated assistant for Amazon’s Echo. Alexa is being described as a potential operating system for the Internet of Things, in competition with Google Assistant and Apple’s Siri.

LG announced a smart fridge partnership with Alexa that will let consumers buy groceries via voice. A flurry of Alexa-enabled applications are on the way, with one pundit predicting a launch of 700 new applications in the next week alone....

Second Life is a online game that immerses players in a virtual world. For the past thirteen years, more than 90,000 players have entered the online community. Now, Linden Labs, the company behind the unique game is looking to enter the realm of virtual reality.

With the popularity of virtual reality headsets, there is an important need for companies to create software to go along with the new technology. That’s where Linden Labs comes in.

Creating software for VR is a hefty task and is pretty much impossible for small companies or organizations. Linden Labs is hoping to help those little guys out by creating what they call a ‘WordPress for Social VR’.

Today, we’re looking at a collection of innovative retailers using these exciting new technologies for maximum impact on their customers. Join us for a 3-D roundup of who’s using AR / VR in showrooms, changing rooms, for in-store entertainment, product information, sales, on mobile apps and much more.

North Face has several augmented and virtual reality applications worth viewing – one is product focused and the other is entertainment. Forbes takes a look at whether virtual reality can save retail and how Samsung is pushing the boundaries in AR. In 10 locations, Macy’s is testing Macy’s On Call, an app developed by IBM and Satisfi. Craig Smith’s Retail Innovation has an excellent collection of profiles of retailers using digital innovations including augmented reality, virtual reality and more. Recommended viewing!

Marxent also has a useful set of e-commerce and bricks-and-mortar examples of augmented and artificial reality used in retail. Wayfair’s new virtual reality app lets customers visualize patio furniture on a deck to help them on the path to purchase. Lowe’s Holoroom gives customers help in visualizing a new kitchen or bathroom in its popular new virtual reality room.

Whisbi highlights  virtual reality storytelling by North Face and virtual test drives by Lexus. M-commerce start-up Spring launched one of the first Facebook chat bots for virtual shopping. Sephora’s new Chicago store mixes old-fashioned makeup fun with futuristic touches including augmented reality and lots of touch-screens. Best Buy is betting big on virtual reality with Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR demos and sales in-store this fall. Finally, Pokémon Go further illustrates the potential for augmented reality to drive local or in-store retail traffic in big numbers. Enjoy your roundup of these retail innovators and learn from their creativity and digital marketing savvy.

For Lowe’s, it was a virtual no-brainer.

Many people can envision a new kitchen, but few can actually visualize it – not correctly anyway. That island ends up taking more space than you thought, and the refrigerator door opens right into the entranceway.

So Lowe’s turned to virtual reality. It created the Holoroom, its self-described “digital power tool for kitchen and bath design.”

Launched in November 2015, the Holoroom enables customers to design their dream kitchens or bathrooms on an app, and then, with virtual reality goggles such as Oculus Rift or Google Cardboard, virtually step into the design.

With this technology, Lowe’s is literally extending the experiential phenomenon of virtual reality from a household word to a retail one. It is not alone. While augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) feel a little futuristic for commerce, big-name retailers are testing the technologies in ways that appear surprisingly simple and adaptable. If these efforts continue, consumers will increasingly come to expect them to aid their purchasing....

Altspace has also just introduced technology it calls FrontRow that promises to make it possible for thousands of people to watch a performer in VR, yet feel like they’re up close no matter where they’re physically situated.

The company’s first big FrontRow showcase was when comedian Reggie Watts took the virtual stage Thursday night. But when I repeatedly tried to attend the event, I kept getting a black screen instead. Well into Watts’ one-hour performance, I finally got in, as Altspace feverishly worked in real time to fix the bugs.

Nine other avatars were visible inside this "comedy club" environment, not counting the avatar for Watts himself. Alas, the problems persisted—choppy movement, lags, poor sound.

Reggie Watts performs in AltspaceVR. (Photo: AltspaceVR)
AltspaceVR’s CEO Eric Romo concedes that the experience was “mixed.” At peak there were more than 1200 attendees, exceeding company expectations, and about ten times as many people, Romo believes, who have ever gathered before for a single VR event. It was also something of an achievement that attendees could come at it from different VR vehicles.

But then there were all the many people like me who had a heck of a time getting in....