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WHEN VIRTUAL REALITY made its debut in the 1990s, the devices were cumbersome – and prohibitively expensive for all but the wealthiest users.
But as equipment prices plummet, the technology is in vogue as many marketers’ latest gimmick to draw in customers.
In Ireland, ‘experiential’ marketing agency BEcause is trying to position itself as the go-to place for brands looking for out-of-the-box campaigns – such as showcasing their products or services with virtual reality (VR).
But the firm’s managing director, Jonny Davis, said brands can’t rely on just the novelty factor of VR to draw consumers in for much longer.
“It is very straightforward now – people will just put on the headset and try it out irrelevant of what the content is,” he said.
“In a year’s time, that won’t be the case. People won’t just be interested in the headset, it’s going to be about trying an experience.”
He added that some brands flocking to the idea of VR are at risk of wasting budgets on projects that aren’t a right fit for the technology.
“People can be lazy and think we will invest in it because it’s the next big thing. I think the mistake is that people want to use whatever the tech is, rather than thinking about what they’re trying to sell.
“I don’t really like when someone comes along and says they just want to do a VR campaign.
“I ask them, ‘what is success’ and then if we get that idea and build out those metrics, then we are able to say that for this instance a VR campaign would work to get a message across.”
Not for novelty
As huge technology companies like Google, Facebook and Samsung invest heavily in the VR industry – which is expected to be worth $1 billion this year – the world’s biggest consumer brands are also jumping on the bandwagon.
Coca-Cola used VR to create a simulated ride in Santa’s sleigh for its Christmas marketing campaign last year, and McDonald’s has made VR headsets out of Happy Meal boxes that can be used to play games on its app.
Irish property firm Sherry Fitzgerald was one of the first businesses to adopt the technology for its marketing campaigns when it started offering virtual tours of homes in then-unfinished developments at Lucan and Stepaside.
The company’s technology director, Brian Dooley, said some house hunters were wary of taking the virtual tours at face value, but all 12 units on offer in the Stepaside development were sold based solely on the VR experience.
“There is a bit of trepidation in terms of how accurate these virtual tours really are compared to reality,” he said.
“When the house was actually built, we had the virtual tour for viewing available as well in the property, so people could do a direct side-by-side comparison of the two. The two were very close, so we were really impressed with how it worked.”
He added that the project was never about novelty value and that the attitude from the start was to make VR an important part of the buying process.
“It is only novelty if it doesn’t deliver value, and this is delivering. You could say it is gimmicky and people are jumping onto it because it is the latest fad, but we found that it has genuine value.
“Historically people were effectively trying to buy a house off a 2D floor plan and a set of measurements on a page and an artist’s impression of what a house would look like. So they really were buying in the dark, whereas now you have a better feel of dimensions using VR.”
Dooley said the first venture into virtual house tours had been a stepping stone for the company, with plans in place to put a VR headset in each of the firm’s branches in the near future.
He added that Sherry Fitzgerald has already launched the next phase of its VR project with virtual tours of already-built houses.
Becoming popular
Although VR remains more costly than social media marketing campaigns – and has a low reach compared to the likes of TV or radio slots – the tool is increasingly falling within reach of smaller businesses.
That is due to lower prices for both VR headsets, and the ability of basic video devices, like smartphones, to now shoot high-quality footage suitable for a VR experience.
Davis said his agency, which recently rebranded from Imagine Agency after a merger, currently quotes brands around €100,000 to add VR to a marketing campaign – although that figure varies widely depending on the brief.
“It’s a little bit like saying how much does a TV advert cost to make – there is no single answer on it because of all the variables.
“For example, we need to know if you already have footage or whether we are going to buy it in. It’s getting cheaper every day, which is good.”
Mainstream
One VR campaign that the BEcause agency helped develop was a virtual rollercoaster-style experience for cheesemakers Boursin.
It simulated users being shrunk to fit into a fridge, and then took them on a tour of their surroundings to show the ingredients that go into the cheese products.
The firm was also behind a campaign for the World Wildlife Fund that tried to replicate the experience of park rangers fending off tiger poachers.
Davis said while a VR experience was by its nature attention-grabbing – guaranteeing nearly 100% of consumers’ attention for a short period – there was still a big problem with proving the effects it had on spending habits.
Nevertheless, the technology is on the verge of become mainstream and usable for mass-market advertising thanks to the affordability of devices that allow for basic VR experiences with only smartphones.
“With the likes of Google Cardboard, you can get those into people’s hands very quickly and even do VR at an event,” Davis said.
“You could send 100,000 cardboard headsets out as part of a newspaper campaign and have the video on YouTube 360 – that would be pretty mainstream.”
Written by Killian Woods and posted on Fora.ie
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Could have played an important role well over a year ago!
@Paul Hedderman: you can see why they didn’t use them though…
@John Black: how much worse would it have made it
@Paul Hedderman: important role in confusing people it seems. If they’re unreliable then they’re unreliable. We’re talking about people’s health here. This sounds like playing black jack with the devil.
@John Black: No I cant, they should’ve been used along side PCR. I can understand they werent as accurate as PCR and there would be non health care professionals using them but its another tool in the fight against covid. Every positive test is one less person spreading to many. Regular testing would increase the odds of catching the positive cases if first test wasnt accurate, especially asymptomatic ones, which may never have been tested. As a society we would be better and more skilled at testing than now. Less covid, less icu and less deaths than we’ve accumulated now. Testing negative isnt an excuse to throw the hygiene measures out the window….. Danes had similar per capita cases to us at start of delta, they’ve had much less covid and deaths since. You can bet antigen tests helped
@SquintEastwood: would’ve led to many super spreader events as people who got false negatives would assume they’re all good to mix in with people
@Paul Hedderman: but people would take the negative to mean they don’t have it as oppose to still a maybe.
For antigen testing to work each person needs to be taking antigen tests regularly which I don’t think anyone would want to pay for, they’re just too unreliable/inefficient.
Denmark isn’t really comparable to Ireland, they don’t have an open border with the UK.
@GrumpyAulFella: Why do other countries use them regularly, why are the govt being told they may play an important role? Why are they being used for the pilot night club event?……… Id rather test myself regularly with them than be walking around possibly asymptomatic spreading. With no symptoms why would an asymptomatic person go for a pcr test if also not a close contact. Many many people have picked it up without knowing where they got it from and passed it on. Antigen can stop that. Antigen can stop people entering pubs/clubs by a positive result. If they aren’t implemented well then that person would be in the pub/club spreading anyway……. Were are talking about peoples health here! And were not using a tool to help reduce covid in the community
@John Black: Denmark has plenty of borders. The state pays for PCR tests. Even at increased accuracy they are way more expensive than PCR tests. If the average person can get antigen tests at about a fiver each the state would surely have been able to get them for 3 quid a piece or under. 1 million tests or so a week in sectors where work from home is not possible and for school children would have caught 1000s of cases even with reduced accuracy. Buy them, put out an information campaign, distribute them. It was literally that easy and we didn’t bother.
@GrumpyAulFella: If you are positive on an antigen test you are positive for covid, if it catches 50% of cases early its a success, result in 10 mins versus approx 36 hours
@GrumpyAulFella: But they are not unreliable, that’s the thing.
@John Black: One would hope that if people were symptomatic they would go for a pcr test through hse/gp. Antigen test would work alongside PCR in every day life to pick up asymptomatic or those that aren’t responsible to go for PCR themselves (ie…. tests at work, pub, public building) Antigen tests should be free through the govt like in the UK….. Denmark have an open border with Germany and a direct road link to Sweden into their capital city. We’re quite comparable to Denmark. Similar vaccinated, they have a slightly bigger population….. They were more open than us but they tested more. We have had way more covid. Testing catches and reduces spread…… Recent high incidences in cork, limerick or waterford hardly due to the north. Mainland UK doesn’t have much impact on our cases.
@a: but they are. They produce false negative results on occasion, particularly in asymptomatic cases, so we’ll have carriers walking around doing non-carrier stuff oblivious to the fact that they have Covid. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. Agree that if it’s positive, it’s positive but saw a guideline yesterday that the person should still get a PCR test to confirm!!??!
@GrumpyAulFella: Yes get pcr to confirm but it shows positive in people who are actively shedding so false negatives are less significant
@Aidan O’ Neill: it’s only land border is with Germany who have handled the situation a lot better than the UK.
Everyone would be taking an antigen test every week or few days, the cost of that adds up, when it’s everyone all the time. Not exactly cheaper.
@Paul Keenan: false negatives are a massive issue because people want to use them as the basis to mix into crowds
@Paul Hedderman: if people were properly educated and knew to use them regularly and not take a negative as a definite, then they’re usable but you have too much faith in people, one look through the comments section under any covid post shows lack of education, a lack of willingness to learn or have their opinion changed and even just general conspiracy theories.
We’re not at all comparable to Denmark, culturally us and the UK are totally different from Denmark and Germany and have handled the pandemic totally differently.
The UK has had a significant impact on our cases throughout.
@GrumpyAulFella: How dont you understand this. The asymptomatic person wouldn’t be tested anyway unless a close contact and would be going around spreading, especially now were soon to be fully open.. Antigen tests wont catch covid in everyone but it will get alot.. it will slow the spread which will be needed this winter. Stop just one asymptomatic person spreading means many others aren’t infected. Multiply that and you’re talking many thousands. Think the health service would be glad of that.
@John Black: NI has, UK mainland not so much. Non essential travel only opened July. 1% – 2% of cases now are traced to travel wit many on sun holidays.. Hard for mainland UK to have a significant impact on us with that. Sure Scotland and Wales had huge increases in September due to back to school and Englands remained relatively steady. If Scotland and Wales increase didnt effect Englands much how would they have a significant impact on our cases……. NI did, particularly on border counties. Doubt they had a significant impact on southern counties, more the locals fed up of govt rules and wanting normality…… Alot of Irish aren’t great at following rules which was our problem, blaming the UK is a cop out!
@Paul Hedderman: how do you mean that asymptomatic people won’t check themselves with antigen tests? There are all manner of reasons why they will. Are you saying that tests returning false negatives for these people is not a problem? Ever heard of meat factories?
@GrumpyAulFella: *Asymptomatic people wont get tested (with PCR tests) unless close contacts*…… No not ideal but it is a side effect of the test not being 100% accurate, just like the vaccine isnt 100% and just like PCR tests aren’t 100% …… As I said, thats where regular testing comes into play, it will work along side PCR tests…… Imagine a venue, everyone feels fine attending, 2 asymptomatic arrive. Theres no antigen tests so both go in and spread away. Imagine they were both antigen tested and one was positive, the other false negative. One asymptomatic goes in and then theres less spread. Imagine both turn up positive then then they dont spread. Either way its better than not testing. Compound this effect throughout society and there’ll be alot less covid spread.
I hope Prof Philip Nolan issues an apology to the Irish people now for calling antigen tests snake oil.
@John Fahy: The way some people talk about antigen tests like they’re the secret weapon to defeat Covid once and for all, you can see why his frustration got the better of him.
@▪️: he’s a medical PROFESSIONAL, he’s paid not to let anything get the better of HIM.
@John Fahy: wouldn’t hold my breath. He has never apologised for any other of his mistakes so he won’t start now.
@John Fahy: Why should he? The majority of people here do not understand in what situations they are important and in what situations they give a false sense of security. Our experts need to work together and release one statement, not 10 different ones, of which media and commenters usually misconstrue.
Snake oil….no wait
“A negative rapid result should not be used as a green light”. Cue mass confusion. Have I got Covid, have I not got Covid? Sounds like you’ll end up at a PCR test clinic anyway. Take the antigen test and of positive restrict movements and go for PCR anyway to confirm that your €5 kit from LIDL is actually working. Take the antigen test and if negative, don’t trust it and go for PCR test anyway.
@GrumpyAulFella: but with symptoms for covid being the same as for almost any other seasonal illness an antigen test gives you a positive covid result in 10 mins instead of 48 hours
@GrumpyAulFella: Finish the sentence… “a negative rapid result should not be used as a “green light” for an individual to ignore or bypass current public health advice”………. Its the same with a negative PCR test. We shouldn’t be ignoring the public health advice at all!
@Paul Hedderman: yes except that we can almost be 100% sure that the PCR result is correct whereas it’s anyone’s guess with an antigen. Not sure how you don’t see a problem with this.
@GrumpyAulFella: PCRs run at 45 cycles are a farce & everyone knows it. Explain to me how I can get tested today & an infection from 6 months ago can detected, yet someone else who tested positive just 3 days ago is negative today?
@GrumpyAulFella: yes correct, a person with a negative PCR test has a 99% chance of being negative at the time of taking the test. Cant you pick up covid at the test centre or in the time since the test….. So its a past indicator. People still shouldn’t ignore or bypass current public health advice whether negative from an antigen or a PCR test. Where is the confusion?
Tony won’t like that snake oil lol
Surely somebody who knows somebody in hse/government can guarantee them if they wanted them.. ring a friend
The EU has already provided 200 million euro in a fund for EU member states to pay for testing.
Got a bunch from the UK, been handy with Flu’s and colds appearing. Apparently they can be inaccurate tho, so you go through them in no time.
Does anybody know what the current Vaccine inventory is like in the country? I assume we have so many Pfizer vaccines in storage for boosters?
Antigen tests are used to see if you have been exposed to a virus. While they could make a good statistical tool to examine the extent and patterns of infection, they aren’t suited for front line detection. So I don’t know why they are being touted as such now. It’s a bit like a firefighter fighting a fire and an investigator investigation the cause and spread of the fire. Generally speaking, the fire investigator isn’t doing his job while the fire fighters are trying to put the thing out.
Tony told us today to ignore the results.
He probably had a very bad experience with snake oil.
Who’s on this expert group?
Sounds like they have a ready to go contract awaiting signature to supply basically useless kits.
have your say