It is always a challenge to convey a message to a broad audience. Edutainment and gamification are useful techniques to accomplish this kind of market reach. It made a lot of sense to develop a virtual reality game that educates the player on the new sorting guidelines. And doing this in the world of the Smurfs would be the icing on the cake. We called on the knowledge and expertise of AlterEyes to guide us through this process. Their creativity and solid technical know-how resulted in an experience appreciated by young and old. AlterEyes really smurfed it!
Tell Your Story
Embracing virtual reality as part of your experiential or event marketing activation allows brands to expand their consumer's experience and interact with them on a whole other level. You are not only able to tell your brand story, but you have the ability to create the story world for customers to step into. A world on terms of your values and propositions.
A New Sales Experience
Besides compelling and memorable brand experiences, virtual reality also has the ability to elevate the shopping experience itself. Showcase your products or allow consumers to get up close and personal with your products, anytime, anywhere. Offer a virtual tradeshow or enhance your presence at the real-world trade show. Real demonstrations are often impractical as you have restricted space in a crowded venue and only a limited amount of products you can put on display. Enhanced with virtual reality potential clients can discover the full range of your product line.
A Smurfy Brand Activation
We recently used virtual reality to help Fost Plus raise awareness about its brand’s mission. More specifically, to raise awareness around new sorting guidelines in Belgium. Fost Plus, responsible for the collection and recycling of household packaging waste in Belgium, uses this virtual reality experience to help local governments to educate citizens of all ages in a fun and effective way.
To engage and encourage people into a subject matter that usually is not perceived as fun (like recycling), using virtual reality is already a good start. Virtual reality offers a different instructional experience for both children and adults, as it can position the user as a subject, rather than an observer, in a situation.
To make the experience even more appealing and recognizable, we partnered up with The Smurfs. Within a pleasant 3D environment, we deployed game elements which resulted in an accessible and fun learning opportunity for a broad audience. In this game, you become a Smurf that has some cleaning up to do. Collect garbage in various Smurfy environments and see how well you sort. The result is a good example of deploying gamification and virtual reality in an accessible and fun learning opportunity.
The experience is being rolled out by Brussels-based communication agency Indiandribble in cities all over Belgium.
Immersive Expertise
As the technology evolves, immersive marketing experiences are no longer a nice to have. They become the new gold standard. Partner with an immersive expert today.
We leverage technology to take marketing to the next level and engage your audience like never before. Stand out from the crowd with unforgettable and immersive virtual and augmented reality experiences to drive sales, raise brand awareness and retain customers.
]]>1 - The technology is ready
Virtual reality revolves around critical technology components such as head-mounted displays, controllers, tracker technology and impressive content all managed by a well-balanced content management system. The hardware part of VR has now reached a level of maturity that makes this technology affordable, reliable and user-friendly.
2 - LBVR has proven business models that work
The technology is already successfully implemented in entertainment and leisure businesses around the globe and has many winning business models. Location-based virtual reality drives revenue, creates happy and returning customers and generates returns. You are no longer a guinea pig.
3 – A fantastic opportunity to differentiate from others
Virtual reality offers you a fantastic opportunity to differentiate your operation from everyone else’s with a unique attraction. Virtual reality has only touched 2% of our western markets and is definitely not mainstream yet. LBVR experiences are a novelty, they are exciting and memorable. Embracing VR gives a competitive edge and a brand lift to any venue. Don’t be the last man standing. You may find yourself struggling to keep up with those that adopted and implemented the technology earlier.
4 – Stay relevant
Location-based VR helps your business stay relevant and appealing in a time where everybody is facing fierce competition from in-home entertainment options. It is increasingly difficult to get (potential) customers of their couch and into your venue.
Technology is pushing the boundaries of what is a memorable and compelling experience worth leaving the comfort of your home and virtual reality is doing just that. The social aspect is another important driver. Hooray, LBVR attractions make VR social and social is the new cool!
5 – High repeat and return appeal
New and exciting attractions like this make people return to your venue. Good virtual reality solution providers will create new experiences every year keeping the experience fresh. This way you keep existing customers entertained and they might bring new people along.
You will be able to offer a variety of experiences (for a diverse audience) using the same investment. A real game-changer! In addition, a lot of the content out there is designed specifically towards that repeat potential. Short and fun experiences that make you want to play again.
6 – The time of hobbyists and DIY is over
Adding virtual reality to your venue can be intimidating, but choosing a competent virtual reality solution provider should take away all your technical worries. A user-friendly interface makes the attraction easy to operate, support is available 24/7 and most issues can be dealt with remotely. The market is now offering multiplayer LBVR turnkey solutions that are thought over and well-engineered. The DIY-era is over and professional vendors have entered the space now.
7 – A flexible solution fit for group events
Multiplayer VR attractions are flexible in their usage and speak to a wide demographic and applications. That makes them very suitable for premium corporate events, team building, game tournaments, parties and other group events. Most attractions also appeal to non-playing spectators as most attractions display gameplay entertaining others while they are waiting for their turn.
The content has also matured and exists for almost any target group or demographic. This makes it easy to integrate virtual reality into existing venues to elevate the whole experience. LBVR is now part of bundles with other attractions and activities. This helps to introduce the technology to new people and generating more sales. Trampoline parks, karting, bowling alleys, … they all found the packaging value add.
8 – Marketing machine
With virtual reality, people are experiencing something new and exciting. This will make them share their enthusiasm with friends, family and their social media network, making your virtual reality attraction a real marketing machine. Word of mouth marketing is not only free but also more persuasive than other any marketing.
9 – Video gaming is becoming mainstream and Esports are booming
The video game industry is booming and is here to stay! Already bigger than the movie and music industry combined, gaming is taking over the entertainment world. In fact, the industry is going mainstream while the gaming audience becomes more and more diverse (e.g. more female gamers, rising average age).
Within the gaming industry, Esports is exploding and you can take advantage of this. Appeal to consumers with a competitive mindset and organize your own tournaments and events. People don’t only play for social interaction and fun, some of them want to compete and compare skills and performance. That’s what makes tournaments so entertaining and what boosts repeat play. Done well, it’s a great way to generate more business, exposure, attract new customers and even create a whole community of its own around your venue.
10 – Appeal to new generations
LBVR will not only entertain your existing customers, it will also help to convince new customers to come to your venue. It’s attracting millennials and as the new generation (Generation Z) is experience-driven, virtual reality and other immersive experiences are fitting for getting their attention. LBVR surpasses the gaming community, as these experiences are getting more accessible to first-time users and getting more appealing to a wider demographics.
Conclusion
Believers and early non-believers are now united, LBVR is here to stay and the market is only starting to kick-in big time. Winners in the industry are those that adapt early and try-out to find their balance in the revenue mix. They will recoup the rewards once the market is irreversible.
This is the perfect time to add a virtual reality experience to your venue. But you need to take in account your own business model and consider multiple factors. Let AlterEyes assist you in exploring virtual reality’s true potential for your business.
To learn more, check out our website or contact us at [email protected]
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