The following is a guest contributed post by Shawn Walker, VP, Strategy & Product Development at Symphonic Digital.

Is virtual reality advertising’s next big thing? Or is it augmented reality? Perhaps neither is as far away as you may think.

If you’ve caught a Weedle, Rattata or Pidgey — or any of the Pokémon Go creatures, you’ve already dabbled in augmented reality. Star Wars makes it possible for fans to become a Jedi Master and fight Kylo Ren (that’s the bad guy for non-geeks) without traveling to another galaxy.

As the world of technology continues to change, so does the disruption of advertising and marketing. From paper to online publications to YouTube to SEO, virtual and augmented reality are next. In fact, in many cases, brands have already implemented augmented or virtual reality strategies — and we can expect more and technology improves.

If you’ve “tried on” glasses online using Topology Eyewear’s that allows you to see virtually how glasses fit your face, you’ve experimented with augmented reality marketing. Snapchat integrated augmented reality into their ads like placing a flying car from the Blade Runner movie right in front of users. Augmented reality is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are “augmented” by computer-generated or extracted real-world sensory input such as sound, video, graphics, haptics or GPS data.

“To understand how virtual and augmented reality fit into a paid digital advertising ecosphere, brands first have to understand the moving parts in their simplest form,” said Steffen Horst, CEO of Symphonic Digital.

Virtual Reality is a fully immersive computer simulated environment that gives the user the feeling of being in that environment instead of the one they’re actually in. YouTube allowed advertisers, including the automaker Holden, to use 360 videos to have a virtual car driving experience directly in an ad (example: youtu.be/-9gI2DUH5oo). The best way to experience the virtual reality aspect of these videos is using a headset like the Oculus Rift (for as low as $349), but it’s possible to watch them in a web browser to get an idea of the experience. For a taste of the virtual reality experience, the entry-level device like Google Cardboard (about $15) enables people to use a smartphone to connect into virtual environments.

According to research by Deutsche Bank, in 2016, there were about 22.5 million mobile VR users worldwide, up from nearly 6.5 million in 2015. Another report released in February by Yes Lifecycle Marketing stated that only 8 percent of companies were currently using virtual reality in advertising. However, the potential is there. For example, if a fictitious shoe brand wanted to promote their product on their website, shoes that were shipped from abroad, two partner ad agencies would work together — the Creative agency and the Execution agency.

The Creative team would produce beautiful images and videos along with clever headlines to capture an audience. The Execution team would find intelligent ways to target the audience and optimize paid media.

“From there, imagine if Google Shopping Ads could allow potential customers to try on shoes before they even hit the brand’s website for a sale,” said Shawn Walker, Symphonic Digital’s vice-president of strategy and product development. “Imagine if Facebook Dynamic Ad campaigns used carousel ads that let you virtually try on every color of shoe. We’re not there yet, but these platforms are known to catch up quickly — so we could be there soon.”

Walker says the end goal is for online companies to get customers to make a purchase with fewer steps, which is expected to happen as technology improves. However, virtual and augmented reality is not expected to completely replace the need for a physical trial, but it will stimulate higher-quality leads. Following the Zappos model, people will order what they want counting on awesome return policies.

The post Is Virtual or Augmented Reality the Next Big Thing in Advertising? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Immersv, an interactive advertising platform for Mobile 360 and Virtual Reality, has completed a $10.5 million Series A round of financing.

MMW can confirm that Rogers Venture Partners led the investment round, with participation from a top-tier group of institutional and strategic investors including Foundation Capital, The Venture Reality Fund, Initial Capital, East Ventures, HTC Vive, MCJ Co. Ltd., GREE, i-mobile, Metaps, and Gigi Levy.

Rogers Venture Partners General Partner, Paul Sestili, and Gumi’s Founder and CEO, Hironao Kunimitsu, have joined Immersv’s Board of Directors.

The Series A financing builds on a year of significant product and market momentum for Immersv, which combines interactive 360 advertising with a programmatic real time bidding platform. The company has recently signed programmatic deals with more than 15 of the world’s largest Demand Side Platforms (DSP’s) and Supply Side Platforms (SSP’s). Partners now include leading firms such as Tremor Video, YuMe, Bidswitch, ironSource, Supership and United in Japan. Major brands such as Nissan, Hawaii Tourism Bureau, and Mountain Dew have executed successful campaigns as well.

“Immersv is the leader in the next wave of interactive digital advertising,” said Mr. Sestili, General Partner with Rogers Venture Partners. “Mobile 360 and VR advertising provides some of the highest view completion rates, click through rates, and overall engagement rates for both brands and performance advertisers. As the central marketplace for buying and selling these new ad formats, Immersv is well positioned to drive significant value for both advertisers and publishers.”

“We’ve been really pleased with the Immersv partnership on our sell-side platform,” said David Arslanian, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Tremor Video. “We look forward to helping advertisers programmatically engage with 360 video at scale.”

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That’s a six percent increase over last year, according to the latest annual research from the Consumer Technology Association (CTA).

This week, MMW was made privy to a summary of the 23rd Annual Consumer Technology Holiday Purchase Patterns Study.

The study in question illustrates that emerging technologies including drones and wearables “will pervade holiday wish lists this year.”

According to CTA’s holiday retail forecast, spending on tech will increase 3.1 percent to reach $36.05 billion during the 2016 holiday season. The forecast also shows overall retail sales in November and December, excluding gas and restaurant sales, are expected to increase a strong 3.8 percent to $824.8 billion year over year.

All told, CTA estimates total online holiday sales will grow by 16.4 percent to $84.2 billion, while online sales through mobile devices like smartphones and tablets will grow by 45.2 percent to $20.1 billion.

“The 2016 holiday season looks to be the biggest on record for the tech sector, thanks to fresh and innovative products on the market such as wearable tech, VR headsets, drones and digital assistant devices,” said Shawn DuBravac, chief economist for the CTA. “Our research also finds that most Americans are now using tech devices to help them research and buy those tech gifts.”

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On the heels of Post’s launch last week of the largest targeted interstitial ad campaign ever with leading virtual reality ad network VirtualSKY, Jack in the Box is now harnessing the power of virtual reality to engage with patrons in an immersive new way.

Jack in the Box, we’re told, wanted to think outside the box when it came to promoting its new Jack’s Brewhouse Bacon Burger. So the fast food giant produced a short VR film giving patrons “an immersive experience.”

Richard Cran, ‎the VP of marketing communications at Jack in the Box, told The Wall Street Journal this week that his company shares the view that virtual reality affords brand marketers an unprecedented opportunity to connect and engage with consumers.

“The days where TV commercials and a banner ad look exactly same, personally, I don’t think and we don’t think is the most engaging way to tell a story to customers. But you need to have some narrative thread that links all the pieces, even though they may be a little different,” Cran is quoted in the report. “The press got the thread presented in a way that was very personal and one-on-one, and VR enabled that. Our consumers broadly will get that through television and streaming video and digital television.”

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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.

The post VirtualSKY and Post Bring VR Advertising to the Modern Stone Age Family appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Interestingly, cost is the least of those concerns.

“Seven in 10 internet users surveyed by HTC claim that they would need to be assured that a VR device wouldn’t cause dizziness or motion sickness before making a purchase, a concern shared by more than any other in the survey,” reports eMarketer. “Two-thirds (66 percent) said it was important to have an abundance of VR content before they would be willing to make a buy, and another 65 percent said the VR device and experience must be immersive.”

The cost-conscious contingent? A mere 39 percent said “a reasonable price was important to a potential future VR purchase.”

China’s rapidly growing middle class has money to spend on VR, and a report by China Youth Daily concludes that internet users in China, whatever their wariness, are certainly interested in VR.

Data shows that about 80 percent of those surveyed do seek out VR or augmented reality products to take them for a spin.

According to iResearch Consulting Group, the Chinese VR market is set to boom in coming years. The current one million mobile-enabled VR devices could mushroom to more than 3.2 million in 2017.

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