10 VR Marketing Examples to Inspire You in 2020

10 VR Marketing Examples to Inspire You in 2020

• The economic impact of virtual and augmented reality is expected to be achieved this year $ 29.5 billion.
• By the end of 2017, the number of VR software and hardware units delivered by Sony, Oculus, HTC and other companies had totalled $ 2.4 million versus $ 1.7 million in 2016.
• The number of VR headsets sold is to be reached by the end of 2020 82 million — 1,507% more sums forecast from 2017.

VR is rolling out quickly, and adding to your marketing channels is something you should definitely think about for the coming year.

What is VR?

VR, short for virtual reality is a form of interactive software that immerses users in a three-dimensional environment – usually using a headset with special lenses – to simulate a real experience. Ideally, users with VR can simulate the experience in 360 degrees.

Numerous industries are now used for VR to transport people to places where they might otherwise travel or simply have to introduce themselves. For example, while film companies give audiences the opportunity to experience the film as if they were a character on the scene, traditional companies use VR to demonstrate and promote their products to potential customers.

Before we look at some companies that have managed to provide their marketing with a dose of VR, we should note that virtual reality has some major differences from another term that you may have heard of: expanded Reality. You can find out what these differences are in the video below.

Are you looking for inspiration for your own VR marketing campaign? Look no further. Below are nine of our favorite VR marketing campaigns and how they serve the company’s marketing strategy.

1. Wendy’s and VMLY & R: Keep Fortnite fresh

While some brands made VR experiences from scratch, Wendy identified how it could get in touch with players Fortnites virtual world. Although this example is technically not a VR experience that requires a headset, the brand still used a virtual world to market its product and tell a story.

Wendy’s first Twitch stream, which won a Gold Clio, was followed by an avatar disguised as Wendy who appeared in the online fighting game.

At one point in Fortnite’s online history, players were asked to hunt cattle and transport beef to freezers in nearby restaurants. Once they did, the players would earn coins.

When Wendy’s team heard that Fortnite players were encouraged to put beef in freezers, the chain hired their marketing agency: VMLY & R.when creating an avatar that looked like Wendy. Wendy’s and his marketing company then started a Twitch stream in which the avatar started to break into restaurants and destroy freezers:

As with a commercial, native ad or advergame, the goal of the campaign – besides attracting new audiences – was to remind Twitch audiences that Wendy’s strives to serve its customers with the freshest, best-tasting beef.

Wendy’s is mentioned during the stream Social media rose 119%. The stream was also viewed as a whole 1.52 million minutes with a quarter of a million viewers.

The campaign also allowed Wendy’s fans to interact with her avatar and stream, which prompted other Fortnite players to smash freezers as well. Wendy’s stream viewers also started tweeting about it or posting on the feed’s comment thread. Because of this engagement, Wendy’s corporate values, brand and live stream became incredibly unforgettable for the gaming audience.

In addition, this campaign enabled the brand to connect and interact with the game audience in a new and innovative way.

According to a Cannes Lions jury chairman, PJ Pereira, the creativity of this campaign could open the door to new marketing opportunities in the future.

“[The campaign] has started a new trend instead of being at the top of an earlier trend. ” Pereira told Ad Age.

2. Key technology: VERYX Food Sorting

Key Technology, manufacturer and developer of food processing systems, created a virtual reality demo, with which the participants of the food fair for packaging of the Pack Expo get a detailed, practical insight into the functioning of the company’s digital food sorting platform VERYX. It was part of a comprehensive B2B campaign to increase brand awareness among a target group of food manufacturers, and VR gave participants a unique insight into how exactly the process inside the machine looks.

While this 360-degree video doesn’t fully reflect the experience, it shows how different brands in such B2B industries like manufacturing can use VR to fully demonstrate their sophisticated technologies and skills.

3. Defy ventures and inside: step to the line

When my colleague attended Oculus Connect in October, the most memorable experience for her was the VR For Good exhibition at the event: a showcase of creative work that used Oculus and VR technology for social and mission-oriented projects.

Such was an example of this work Step to the line: A short film (vividly viewed on a VR headset) that documents the lives of inmates in California high-security prisons. It was created by Within, a VR storytelling production company, in collaboration with Defy Ventures, an entrepreneurship and development program for men, women, and adolescents currently or previously detained.

With this unique viewing experience, viewers were able to see in a unique way what life is like within the walls of these correctional facilities, from the courtyard to the cells to the discussions taking place there.

4. Limbian life: VITALICS project

For far too many people, injuries, age, and illness can affect mobility and balance to a point where walking ranges from extremely painful to almost impossible.

For this reason, the employees of Limbic Life founded the Limbic Chair in collaboration with the VITALICS research carried out by RehaClinic. By combining this special chair with a Gear VR headset, users can move their bodies more intuitively (thanks to the chair’s combined neuroscientific and ergonomic design) and at the same time virtually experience daily experiences with the rehabilitation of their hands and legs.

While research is still ongoing and no definitive conclusions have been reached, my employee had the opportunity to use the chair at the Samsung Developer Conference 2017 and to meet with the chair’s creator, Dr. Patrik Künzler to speak.

“Patients enjoy sitting on the chair and moving freely. They enjoy VR very much, especially flying games,” he said Samsung Business Insights. VR technology can not only help them with physical healing, but also contributes to emotional rehabilitation.

“When you get up from your chair,” said Künzler, “you are in a good mood and feel happy.”

Learn more about the conceptualization behind the Limbic Chair in Künzler’s TEDxZurich lecture below.

5. Lowes: Holoroom How To

Anyone who has the existential fear of being a first-time buyer knows the unfathomable power of paperwork and finance to undermine the fun of designing or decorating a new home.

That is, until you enter one of 19 Lowe stores that offer the Holoroom How To VR experience.

Some homeowners are lucky enough to pay a professional to renovate their home if need be. For others – Lowe’s main customers – the next stop is the do-it-yourself world, which is associated with a high dose of stress.

That’s why Lowe decided to help homeowners – or do-it-yourselfers – with a virtual training clinic that uses HTC Vive headsets to guide participants through a visual, educational experience of how to do it yourself.

6. Boursin: The sensorium

One of my colleagues recently agreed to quit the dairy – okay, 48 hours ago – and she says she misses cheese a lot.

You can imagine her happiness when she discovered that the Boursin cheese brand once created a VR experience to take users on a multi-sensory journey through a refrigerator and illuminate the flavor profiles, food pairings and recipe ideas of their products.

The goal: to raise British consumers’ awareness of Boursin’s special taste and range of products.

While the VR episode was part of a live experience marketing campaign, the rest of us can get a taste of the virtual experience through this YouTube video.

7. Adidas: Delicatessen

Adidas entered into a partnership in 2017 Somewhere else, an aspiring tech marketing agency to track the mountaineering trip of two extreme athletes sponsored by TERREX (a division of Adidas).

And what good is mountaineering for an audience if you can’t give them a 360-degree view of the trip?

The audience could literally follow climbers Ben Rueck and Delaney Miller stone by stone and climb with them. You heard that right – with a VR headset and two sensory remote controls in each hand, viewers could climb the mountain delicacies right next to Rueck and Miller.

According to Somewhere Else, this VR campaign was used to “find an unforgettable way to market TERREX”. [Adidas’s] Line of outdoor clothing and accessories. “However, the company also introduced viewers to an activity that they may not have tried otherwise. First, interest in the experience, and the product is suddenly more attractive to the user.

Check out the campaign trailer below.

8. Toms: virtual journey

A popular shoe company, Toms is known for donating a pair of shoes to a child in need every time a customer buys their own pair. Well, this nonprofit developer has found a new way to inspire its customers to give – wearing a VR headset.

The Toms Virtual Giving Trip is told by Blake Mycoskie, the founder and chief shoe giver of Toms, and one of his colleagues.

As they describe the story of the founding of Toms, their VR experiences take viewers on a trip through Peru, where Blake and the shoe donation team go to a school of kids who are about to receive the shoes they are getting for the first time need.

What makes Toms VR campaign so good is something that organizations around the world struggle to show donors exactly where their money is going. Even without a VR headset, the following video gives you an experience that is intimate enough to add Toms to your list for your next shoe purchase.

9. DP World: Caucedo Facilities Tour

DP World is a global trading company that helps companies move goods around the world. However, as the company opens new terminals, they need to be able to show their customers what DP World real estate has to offer.

The recently opened DP World caucedo facility in the Dominican Republic is just one of several DP World properties that VR is using to promote their large and often mysterious ships and land masses when they suddenly appear in a community.

Is retail logistics a sexy industry? Not for everyone. This is exactly why a 360-degree tour of the DP World Terminal is so valuable here. Show people how efficient, safe and crucial these properties are for certain companies – without putting on a helmet and walking through the harbor – and you can get massive support from the community.

10. TopShop: Catwalk VR experience

Just because you couldn’t attend TopShop’s fashion show during London Fashion Week doesn’t mean you couldn’t “be there”.

TopShop, a women’s fashion retailer, has partnered with Inition, an emerging technology agency, to offer customers a “virtual” seat of their fashion show by wearing a VR headset associated with the event.

The groundbreaking campaign brought viewers right next to the fashion track and the celebrity spots that were present. Talk about whether your brand is inclusive …

Watch the video below and summarize the experience.

Navigate in VR in marketing

As you read this, you might be thinking, “Why would a small business marketer like me learn about high-priced VR campaigns?”

Well, although VR could be too expensive for many. Marketing budgets are becoming increasingly common in society. With increasing growth, we see a handful of brands that they use for product advertising and virtual storytelling. Even if you may not be able to create a VR-based campaign, you can gather some great insights related to marketing innovations, content marketing, or visual storytelling that give you other ideas on how to better interact with your digital audience can.

Would you like to see how other emerging technologies affect your marketing? Check out A practical approach to emerging technologies for SMEs: AI, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, IoT and AR / VR.