Thanks to the expansion of the digital marketing landscape, advertising creatives are constantly under pressure to adapt to newer technologies to attract and reel in new or existing customers. Various short-term courses in IIM focus on equipping students with the skills required to maneuver emerging technologies that can be used to develop new marketing techniques. An advanced online digital marketing course can help you acquire the knowledge.
The rise of virtual reality marketing can be attributed to the popularity of VR headsets. Virtual reality is effective in how it holds the audience captive – it creates an immersive experience. Thus, virtual reality is effective for marketing a location or a lifestyle.
What Is Virtual Reality & How Does It Function?
Before we go any further, let’s break down the terms associated with virtual reality marketing.
- Virtual reality is the generalized term for any type of experience that places the user in another world or dimension.
- Augmented reality is a term used for placing virtual objects in the real world, e.g. Pokemon Go, or the iPhone camera.
- In mixed reality, layers of videos are used to make the real and the virtual world interact with each other.
The following are some features that make virtual reality a fast-growing digital marketing strategy:-
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It Offers Exciting Alternatives to Normal Online Marketing
If filmed ads allow consumers to picture themselves as part of an experience, VR literally does just that. The idea of creating a market for the experience you have to offer as a business or brand is essential. Virtual reality marketing has been a boon for creative campaigns. If you have taken or plan to take an online digital marketing course, you’ll learn how to create a campaign that captures the imagination of your customers. What better way is there to achieve that than through virtual reality marketing?
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Immersive Storytelling
Immersive storytelling is being implemented not just in digital marketing but also in journalism and education. Vox videos use immersive storytelling to acquaint their audiences with an idea. Companies can now take television advertising a step further through virtual reality marketing. The New York Times has, of late, used virtual reality for visual storytelling.
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Showcase Products
Many companies are now incorporating VR to showcase their products so that they can demonstrate to customers how their services work. By putting on a VR headset, the consumer can get an almost-real experience, making the act of acquiring the product or service more palpable. The act of showcasing products and services to consumers is completely changing through virtual reality marketing. It allows you to captivate your customers.
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Facilitating Relationships
VR also revolutionizes the ability to facilitate relationships with customers. Like other forms of technology, you can use VR through content marketing to keep your customers updated about new products and services. There are now downloadable apps that allow you to access VR on your phone.
Reality bites, but virtual reality doesn’t!
Inspiring Examples of Virtual Reality Marketing
Short-term courses in IIM on digital marketing will inevitably acquaint you with virtual reality marketing. If you’re not familiar with VR already, you would be surprised to know that 75 percent of the world’s most successful brands use virtual reality campaigns already as part of their marketing strategy. Virtual reality has the potential to implode in the next decade, and the following examples prove it:-
1. New York Times
Virtual reality allows you to tell a visual story. Considering how every aspect of life is becoming audio-visual and all people read is Instagram captions in today’s world, it is brilliant to use VR to convey a message. The New York Times delivered Google cardboard glasses to all of their subscribers with different VR films. The glasses were only delivered to their most loyal customers, in order to create an incentive for brand loyalty.
2. Volvo Test Drive
Volvo uses VR to let its customers test drive a car. It keeps updating its customers with features that can be downloaded onto their mobile phones. Using VR marketing in this manner allows customers to cement a certain experience vision in their minds which makes a brand closer to their hearts.
3. Thomas Cook
Thomas Cook is a global travel company. It provides its customers with headsets at its stores which takes them halfway across the world. You could be in a Mumbai tea stall and see yourself standing atop the Eiffel Tower.
Your customers get to know and understand what you are offering in the closest way possible.
What Virtual Reality Means For Businesses?
For businesses and digital marketers, the next big opportunity is already at your doorstep. It is predicted that by 2022, the VR industry will hit about $33.90 billion. The number of VR headsets being sold will have reached about eighty-two billion by the beginning of next year.
If you want to portray yourself as a forward-thinking organisation, virtual reality marketing is for you. An online digital marketing course can tell you that it is important in this day and age to allow consumers an opportunity to be intimate with your brand to gain their trust. Virtual reality marketing does just that.
The Bottom Line
Short-term courses from IIM on digital marketing can make you understand the importance of capturing your customers’ imagination. To keep up with the fervor of the times, marketers have to constantly offer something new to their companies. Virtual reality marketing is the best way to achieve that and also exhibit your professional creativity. To do something novel, enrol in an online digital marketing course at IIM to equip yourself with the technological advancements and technical knowledge required to make a dent in this industry.
More Information:
Why pursue a career in digital marketing?
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10 Best Digital Marketing Courses to Advance Your Career
Digital Marketing Career Scope, Jobs Opportunity & Salary in India
