Greetings from southern Africa, where Cortney has spent the last two weeks having meetings, shooting 360 footage of some amazing and terrifying animals for an upcoming project, and enjoying a whole new world of meats. But the best part of this trip came in the most unexpected place -- a tiny (seriously, small town bus station size) airport in Namibia. A kindly regional private jet pilot noticed her struggling to set up her SIM card and offered to help; in return, she thought she'd impress him and let him play with her Gear headset. The pilot informed her that as nice as that was, he was already an old hand at VR, as his tiny airline did in-flight training in a Rift (alas, he couldn't sneak her past security to see it in the office).
Brands: It’s Time To Start Bringing VR to the Table Earlier
Co-author: Jenya Lugina
At least once a week, a version of the following article pops up in one of our feeds: [Brand] announces they are experimenting with VR with the release of [content]. When I check out the content, no matter what the quality, one thing is almost always consistent — it has nothing to do with the brand’s current messaging strategy. Sometimes it tells a story, sometimes it’s a gimmick, but more often than not, it just reads as an experiment. The message has nothing to do with the brand; rather, the message is, “we heard VR was a cool new thing we had to do, so we threw some money at folks who may or may not know what they’re doing, and they made a video that we probably don’t really know how to promote. We weren’t solving a business challenge or creating a coherent narrative; we were doing a thing we had to do, probably badly, and using that as an excuse to not do it again.”
How Virtual Reality Can Provide Users With a Truly Unforgettable Experience
As we chat with more of our wonderful agency partners, the issue of ROI in VR keeps coming up. We've been spending some time digging into stats and research, and one thing is becoming clear -- humans retain information delivered via VR in a much deeper way. One survey compared patients recovering from brain surgery and relearning skills using VR to those using traditional methods, and found the VR group bounced back faster than the control group. Another study split construction management students into two groups, one using VR and one using books and flat videos -- and when tested a month later, the VR group had much higher scores. Finally, a group of doctors using VR to train before working on patients had a 5% error rate, while the doctors using the usual methods had a 55% error rate (terrifying, right?).
When Millions of Consumers Are in VR, Will You Be Playing Catch Up?
First things first -- a massive shoutout to John Deschner of TBWA\Chiat\Day\LA, our reader of the week. On a panel at the Fast Company Festival in NYC last week, he made the central point we here at Friends With Holograms have been trying to make for months now: “You can sit on the fence (with VR), but then you will be playing crazy catchup.” As we approach 2018, the fence is no place to be when it comes to emerging reality tech -- you’re either getting in front of the curve or setting yourself up to fall behind.
How VR Can Help Bridge the Employment Gap
In recent years, a bleak picture has started to emerge of people in left-behind America. In communities with few jobs and a raging opioid crisis, young men in particular have retreated in great numbers, simply dropping out of life altogether, spending their days playing video games with no end in sight. Funding for local educational programs has been slashed, and the for-profit institutions that prey on them require taking out massive loans and rarely provide any sort of useful education. In the meantime, skilled manufacturing jobs sit empty and productivity decreases, because there remains a wide gap and no clear path for those who could learn the skills but cannot figure out how.
Mark Zuckerberg is Going to Get a Billion People in VR
Last Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg stood onstage in front of nearly 3,000 people at Oculus Connect and made a promise -- he was going to get a billion people in virtual reality. To make that happen, he announced the launch of two new VR headsets -- the Oculus Go, which will be phone-free and release next year at a $199 price point; and the Santa Cruz, a wireless immersive headset that will release to developers next year and then to the wider market.
VR and AR — A Quick Intro for Brands and Agencies
I’ve been speaking on a ton of panels recently, but realize that not everyone can make it to every conference. Over the course of the next few months, I’m going to release a series of pieces based on my remarks so a wider audience will be able to access them.
VR Is The Future Machine
Imagine this: you’re sitting in the driver’s seat of a car, ready to head off on your daily commute. But rather than place your hands on the wheel and start driving, the car takes care of the work for you, while you enjoy a coffee, answer some emails, and catch up on the news. Because every other car on the road is also a self-driving machine, there’s no need to watch out for erratic or distracted drivers, and before you know it, you’re at your office and the car is ready to zip off for another trip, rather than wastefully sitting in a parking lot for the next eight hours.