From Forbes’ Azad Abbasi: Virtual reality and 360-degree virtual reality: Everyone seems to be talking about it nowadays. But what is it exactly, and how does it work? First, you must know that there are two sides to the VR coin:
Virtual Reality (VR): Virtual reality is computer generated, like a game or a 3D render of architecture. These software-generated virtual images are realistic and can replicate real environments or imaginary ones. In virtual reality, you look around and interact in a computer-generated experience.
360-Degree VR Video: 360-degree video is an immersive experience filmed with several video cameras mounted to capture activity happening all around, creating a spherical video. These experiences are like virtual reality where you can look around and even interact, depending on the platform used. Like panoramic pictures, this gives the sensation of being at the location and being immersed in it.
Virtual reality and 360-degree VR video are still so new that you may not be sure about how to integrate it into your marketing and sales strategy. At my digital agency, we’ve been working with VR for three years. To ease your way into the world of VR, we created this list of the top five ways to incorporate VR into your marketing campaigns:
1. Create 360-Degree Or VR Content
Virtual reality is the perfect medium to create immersive and compelling content that inspires. The most important social media platforms, Facebook and YouTube, are 360-degree VR video ready. It should not be a surprise that these tech giants are spearheading the VR and 360-degree video movement: Facebook purchased Oculus in 2014 and is heavily investing in VR, and Google just released Daydream View (VR headset) and Daydream VR, a mobile VR platform.
You have worked hard to establish a presence on those platforms; now is the opportunity to lead your industry by creating VR or 360-degree content. The easiest way is to create 360-degree pictures and videos with amateur cameras, such as the Theta or Samsung 360. The more complex options include high-quality cinematic and computer-generated virtual reality, which can also include 360-degree spatial sound.