Attending Greenwood Campbell’s event on Thursday 6th June gave us an insight into the potential of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in the world of commerce, marketing and PR. These technologies have only recently reached consumers, with Pokémon GO proving to be a hit for AR as the third most downloaded app in 2016. These technologies are also proving popular in the commercial worlds of retail, health, travel and entertainment.
Bertie Millis from Virtual Umbrella kicked off the evening by introducing everyone to the world of Virtual Reality (VR); computer technology that uses virtual reality headsets to generate realistic images, sounds and other sensations that simulate a user's physical presence in a virtual or imaginary environment.
A person using virtual reality equipment is able to "look around" the artificially generated world and interact with virtual features or items.
Working with Virtual Umbrella, Robinsons, conducted a PR stunt using VR in one of London’s busiest train stations. People were invited to sit in an umpire’s chair at a tennis court in Waterloo station and using a VR headset were able to watch Wimbledon live giving them a 360 degree view of the game. As people queued for the VR experince, they were offered a new Robinsons’ flavoured drink which gave them the chance to win prizes including VIP Wimbledon tickets.
Mikela from Blippar followed Bertie and explained the difference between Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality; VR being a program that takes over your senses by putting on a headset and sometimes headphones, whereas AR superimposes a computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world, on a phone or tablet.
Blippar works with brands and businesses to create exciting and innovative campaigns where consumers can scan products using the Blippar app to explore offers, recipes, games and much more.
Blippar has worked with Coca Cola enabling Blippar app users to scan a branded bottle or can. The scan pops up with a juke box playing the top tracks in the UK on Spotify, giving the user an incentive to use the app.
A fantastic event from Greenwood Campbell, giving us an insight into what is currently being used by big brands such as Coca Cola and Robinsons to keep them ahead of the game. Campaigns such as Robinson’s Waterloo VR Wimbledon stunt is a great example of how VR can support a PR stunt and Coca Cola’s campaign with Spotify shows how AR can be used to enhance the consumer experience and extend their journey.
The event has got us thinking about how we can use these exciting technologies for our clients.
If you think they could work for your business get in touch with the Sunny Bird PR team and we’ll wow you with some ideas on how you can harness this fun, new technology. Give us a call on 01202 293095 or email hello@sunnybirdpr.com.