August 12, 2020

Virtual Reality and 360 are Surging and You Can Guess Why

 

Photo by JESHOOTS.COM

 

 

When I tell people that we handle virtual reality and 360 video at our video production agency, they are surprised, because our focus has always been authentic storytelling through documentary-style video. The key phrase to focus on in that last sentence is authentic storytelling. This newer capability is more technology-driven, but VR & 360 are absolutely the pinnacle of authentic storytelling.

360 and virtual reality video allow brands to come directly to their audience. When people cannot travel to see your new building, view your demonstration of your product in use, or experience anything “live”, 360 and VR fill the gap. They take you to the scene and give you the feeling of being there.

 

Virtual Reality & 360 in Agriculture

 

Scenic Road works a lot in agriculture, and plot tours are a huge part of our partner brands’ marketing. You invite growers to your fields to show how your particular seed brand grows, or how your herbicide stacks up to the competition. Farmers are a pragmatic bunch, and they know the proof is in the pudding. If they can see for themselves how the product is standing up in the field, they know they can accurately assess probability of success in their own. This year, we’ve done a number of 360 plot tours, because no one is bringing together large groups for demonstrations at this time. People still need to eat, and farmers still need to grow. 360 fills an important gap and lets them know which products are working and where.

 

 

 

man standing in soybean field in VR experience landing page

 

 

 

Virtual reality has a powerful educational component. When you’re trying to give people bite-sized pieces of informational content, doing it in an entertaining format is your best bet. In this project, we help educate consumers about the lifecycle of biodiesel, from the farm to the processing plant, through a 3D animation of the product in an engine.

 

 

Click Here for Lifecycle of BioDiesel VR Project

 

 

Landing screen for a virtual reality experience online

 

 

Virtual Tours & 360 Video in Education

Educational campuses also benefit from 360 and VR right now, and more colleges are investing in virtual tours. These are much more advanced than in years past, and we create self-guided tours that are “Choose your Adventure” style. We incorporate clickable graphics and 2D pop-up videos that allow people to learn more about the areas they care about. We can build the environments in multiple languages as well.

 

 

 

Tying VR & 360 with 2D Production

 

Scenic continues to do our standard, live-action productions as well, just on a smaller scale. We have procedures in place to keep people safer, including pre- and post production cleaning, social distancing from interviewees, and doing interviews outside when possible. Click here for our documents outlining our COVID procedures.

 

From an economic standpoint, it also makes sense to incorporate live-action shoots with a 360 shoot. You can get multiple deliverables, reaching different audiences in different ways, all in one spend.

 

 

VR is Critical to Marketing

New and innovative ways of incorporating VR into your marketing experiences will be the norm, not the exception, moving forward. Sure, we’re all hoping for a return to normal, but as a small business, we can’t afford to wait. We’re betting you can’t, either.

 

 

Email us to find out how we can create immersive VR experiences for your brand.