Post, the consumer cereal brand giant, and VirtualSKY, a groundbreaking virtual reality advertising network, are bringing to the kitchen table the largest targeted interstitial ad campaign ever, according to a new report from AdAge.
The first platform of its kind, VirtualSKY brings to market the ability for advertisers to deliver ad experiences that play when a consumer launches VR content while wearing a virtual reality headset. Erasing worries of poor ad viewability, VirtualSKY’s campaigns are text-book illustrations of how effective ads are when they shroud users from every angle with sight and sound in an “an unmissable and completely engulfing experience.”
And now the well-known breakfast cereal maker is harnessing the power of virtual reality for its first ever Fruity Pebbles VR marketing initiative highlighted by an immersive 30-second pre-roll spot for the Fruity Pebbles “Yabba Dabba Doo” campaign.
The campaign is running on all major VR platforms (including Google Cardboard, HTC Vive and Oculus) beginning this week.
“What truly sets Pebbles’ effort apart from other marketers’ attempts at VR marketing is that it’s a more guided, deliberately organized experience,” AdAge reported Monday. ”Whereas many VR experiences ‘drop the user into an environment and let them explore’ for an unlimited amount of time, Pebbles created an edited ad featuring 360 visuals.”
And Post will definitely know just how well it’s reaching consumers and key demographics thanks to the outstanding analytics capabilities behind the initiative, says the team at VirtualSKY.
VirtualSKY deploys heat mapping technology to record precisely where in a VR ad viewers are looking at a given time, allowing publishers to utilize the data going forward.
“Never before has any advertisement actually been able to measure 100 percent exactly where everyone is looking at the app,” Cameron Peebles, CMO at VirtualSKY, tells AdAge. “So you can measure overall effectiveness and optimize your content by changing it [according to where viewers are and aren’t looking].”
Auspiciously for advertisers tinkering with the prospect of directing future marketing efforts toward virtual reality, early consumer reactions to VR ad campaigns have been abundantly positive, not only in terms of the quality of the VR ads but also their timing. VirtualSKY says that, in part, their VR ads are so effective because they come at opportune moments, not interruptive ones. For example, the company’s “Experience Ads” are placed at natural breaks in gaming content (between levels) and transport viewers, without irritation, “into the world of the ad with 360 degrees of video and sound.”
All told, it doesn’t require heat mapping to detect where VirtualSKY’s focus is today. The forward thinking VR advertising innovator has its sights set on revolutionizing advertising experiences and opportunities within the ballooning VR consumer economy.
Per the latest data from Deloitte, sales of VR products will likely top $1 billion in 2016 alone. As a result, advertisers may soon have no choice but to follow the lead of Post, Pepsi, Disney and other early VR advertising adopters and bring their brands to VR.
For a look at Post’s PEBBLES 360 video, click here.
