The world of experiential VR can be both dazzling and daunting – particularly when it comes to helping your clients take their first dip into the virtual waters. So, how do you convince clients to buy into VR? And what are the top tips for how to sell in experiential marketing VR experiences?
“How do you convince clients to buy into VR?”
Luckily, there’s a whole host of answers which can help you along your experiential way and give your clients a friendly, helping hand into the inviting waters of this technology. So, grab your water wings and have a read through some of our best top tips, to help your clients take the experiential Virtual Reality plunge.
1. Use VR to create infinite space
The first tip to help you sell in VR is probably one of the most important on our list. When you’re at your event – whether it’s a train station, roadshow, festival or pop up Virtual barber salon somewhere in Shoreditch – often, your plot can end up a little on the space saving side.
“Take your viewer to somewhere they wouldn’t ordinarily go”
With this tech, you can transform that small square somewhere on the high street, into a spacious beachside retreat in the Bahamas. Or, an abstract, animated land that stretches for miles across the horizon, all from the comfort of a headset. It can be used to create infinite space and take your viewer to somewhere they wouldn’t ordinarily go. Why not use it to offer your audience something unique?
2.Think About Scalability
Let’s cover this big one off early. Is it possible to deliver VR to suit different sizes of budgets? The short answer is yes, so long as your idea is scalable. As per any content film, it’s the idea that counts, not the budget. If your creative concept is crafted with different budgets in mind – like a bronze, silver, gold option – more often than not, you can craft a budget savvy piece of VR.
“It’s the idea that counts, not the budget”
Your production company can help you come up with these scalable, tiered options which let you work with the budget you’ve got. Rather than a fully interactive, motion controller experience, you project might lend itself to a 360 experience in a headset. Experiential VR is also great at getting global experiences on a local scale. Also, consider if your experience could be relevant for the global market. If it’s something which could be used to engage with your audience on an international level, there might be the option to access a global budget, to help boost your VR presence.
3.Give your experience a longer life
If you want to give your experience a much longer life, not only in the minds of your audience but online and in the social space, VR is the perfect tool to do that. There’s a common misconception that only those who are at your event will be able to view your VR masterpiece, when in fact, a virtual experience could actually gain your client more visibility.
“VR could actually gain your client more visibility”
After you’ve made your experience, depending on its level of interactivity and flexibility, your production partner can easily provide you with a 360 version for you to share with your consumers on social – opening it up to a global audience. Or, if you’re looking for additional content to support the event, why not film your audience’s reaction to the VR experience and share this online. Think about the ways you could use VR tech to extend your event.
4. Take your viewer away from the bustle
One of the great things about VR is its ability to offer absolute escapism – even if you are sandwiched between two display stands with dozens of people dashing around the event. As important as high footfall is, it can be incredibly hectic. And once your audience has spent the day trekking around the roadshow or shopping centre, laden with armfuls of leaflets and other giveaways, they’ll want to escape.
“VR allows you to take your potential customer away from the bustle”
VR allows you to take your potential customer away from the bustle and to somewhere far more appealing to them. The virtual world provides the perfect place for your client to engage with a captive audience, by offering them a retreat from modern life. Or perhaps, you want to create an abstract world they can explore, far from the madness of the shopping centre. Whatever your experience, VR is the ultimate anti-bustle technology.
5. VR provides a more accurate ROI
Our final tip to help your client take that plunge into the experiential VR world, is all about those elusive ROI figures. When it comes to experiential, it can be a little difficult to pinpoint exact stats from your event. How do we know the precise footfall from the day? Can you really track how many people interacted with your brand and found the experience engaging?
“With VR, you can track everything precisely”
The short answer is no, not really. You’ll get a good idea from the numbers but not a definite figure, you can use to measure the success. With VR, you can track everything precisely – from the amount of people who experienced it on the day, to interactions with the experience online. If you want to know exactly how beneficial the event was to your audience, create a VR experience you can quantify.
So there you have it! An answer to “How to pitch a VR experience concept”. And, if you want a little extra insider information on some of the other benefits, have a read of our guide to “Hitting experiential VR challenges head on” . In the meantime, below is a short bullet point summary of our top tips, for you to bring out at your next client meeting.