Why Marketers Shouldn't Get Overexcited About Virtual Reality as a Branding Tool

Virtual reality is an extraordinarily hot topic right now in media and technology circles. We've seen some amazing developments in recent years, but for the purposes of marketers, technology has not caught up with needs. Beyond functioning, we need it to scale and affect consumer behavior. This will likely happen in time, but many years from now. To understand why there is so much buzz in adland about VR and why expectations need to be contained, it's worth taking a look back. Andy Maskin Illustration: Alex Fine In the 1990s, there was a spike of interest on the subject. Books like Snow Crash and movies like The Lawnmower Man ignited the imagination, and virtual reality games started popping up in arcades. And then, unlike most major innovations of that era, it seemed to fizzle out. Fast forward to 2012, and the advent of Oculus Rift reawakened the sleeping giant. Since its legendary Kickstarter campaign, other players have rushed into the market including Samsung. The acquisition of Oculus Rift by Facebook caught many off guard and has many wondering whether this time VR is for real. The original wave of VR excitement was really built on metaphor. The idea that computers could connect to each other was relatively new to most outside academia and the military. Just as the physical world concept of folders holding documents was borrowed to explain how computer files were organized, people shopped in online stores and met in chat rooms. Once it clicked for people... Continue reading at 'AdWeek'

[ AdWeek | 2015-09-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #financial services #programmatic buying #adweek magazine

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Best Marketing Campaign award to James Patterson is Missing

Marketing campaigns for books by James Patterson, David O’Doherty and Chris Judge, and Helen Walsh were named as the winners of the Best Marketing Campaign of the Year Awards today (25th March). The Book Marketing Society (BMS), which is now part of Nielsen Book, gave its annual awards at the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #marketing campaigns #chris judge #marketing campaign #annual awards


5 Big Things Marketers Need to Know From Facebook's Developer Conference

Facebook is revealing its latest technology to the world this week at its annual Facebook Developer Conference in San Francisco. And while the show is geared at developers, a good chunk of the news should apply to brands and publishers that regularly use the platform, particularly with mobile... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2015-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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ESPN, Outbrain Partnership Lets Other Marketers Get Native Placement on the Sports Site

One of the biggest names in sports is letting other publications tap into its digital audience.  ESPN and content recommendation platform Outbrain announced Thursday that the two signed a multi-year, global deal. And, because Outbrain is being integrated into ESPN's in-house sales platform, it... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2015-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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What brands and publishers need to know about Facebook’s developer conference

Facebook is positioning itself to become the data, media-consumption and content-sharing backbone for the entire digital media industry. Between making user data available in its video ad network LiveRail, making its video player embeddable on publishers' websites, growing its number of... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2015-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Why Digital-Facing Brands Stick Around for SXSW Music

The interactive portion of the South by Southwest festival in Austin may be over, but that doesn't mean that digital media brands have packed up their bags. Several digital-facing companies and publishers have decided to activate outside the traditional period reserved for their wares, further... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2015-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Debut author organises own £200k marketing campaign

A debut author has arranged a marketing and publicity campaign she estimates is worth £200,000 to support the release of her book, and which her agent said “must be unique for a first-time author”. Janet Kelly’s Dear Beneficiary, about an older woman who has a relationship with a Nigerian man... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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PRH to launch Penguin-branded consumer site

Penguin Random House UK is to launch a multi-million pound Penguin-branded consumer website in the second half of this year, but chief executive Tom Weldon reiterated the company's view that it had no plans to become a retailer, claiming that it would be "quicker for PRH to burn the money". Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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5 Tips for Online Book Marketing Today

Testing first, remaining flexible, and hanging out on Twitter are all best practices for to online book marketing today, says Derrick Schultz of Atavist. The post 5 Tips for Online Book Marketing Today appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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McKearney to be chair of Book Marketing Society

The Book Marketing Society (BMS) has appointed Miranda McKearney as its new chair. McKearney, founder and former c.e.o. of charity The Reading Agency, takes on the role from previous chair Martin Neild, who has stepped down after five years. McKearney stepped down from her role at The Reading... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tapping Into the Minecraft Audience to Market Books

Hybrid German author Karl Olsberg describes how he leveraged the huge audience of Minecraft fans to sell a series of novels based on the game. […] The post Tapping Into the Minecraft Audience to Market Books appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Why Branded Content Is Poised to Take Over

As more publishers launch branded content divisions, native advertising is taking over a larger part of digital marketing. Adweek caught up with Peter Minnium, the Interactive Advertising Bureau's head of brand initiatives, to talk about the trend, which was the topic of a panel he recently... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2015-03-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Miriam Robinson to direct Marketing & Publicity Conference

Miriam Robinson, former head of marketing at Foyles, is to become programme director for The Bookseller’s annual Marketing & Publicity Conference, to be held in June. Robinson led Foyles' widely-admired strategy to involve trade partners in the creation of the new Charing Cross Road... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Should Greece Should Deregulate Its Book Market?

Among the suggestions to improve Greece's economy has been the prescription that it deregulate the book market, yet several people oppose this view. The post Should Greece Should Deregulate Its Book Market? appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-03-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In Germany: Ebooks Less Than 10% of Market, Tolino Grows

Ronald Schild, CEO at Germany's MVB, discusses developments in German ebook sales — which still command just a single digit market share — and the Tolino ebook platform. The post In Germany: Ebooks Less Than 10% of Market, Tolino Grows appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Money, mobile and maturing brands: What else is keeping publishers up at night?

As part of Digiday's Publishing Summit Europe, held in February in Monaco, Taboola hosted a town hall for publishers. At once excited and nervous about the industry's digital-first future, several dozen industry veterans weighed in on the challenges they face. Chief among them? How to manage... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2015-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Puffin, Pan Mac and PRH win Marketing Society prizes

Campaigns promoting humorous safety tips for children, a book by astronaut Chris Hadfield and a guide to getting the style and attitude of Parisian women won big at the Book Marketing Society’s Best Campaign meeting for the Christmas season. The meeting was held at Simon & Schuster’s... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Identity Crisis at Gawker? Nick Denton's Blogging Empire Working with Branding Agency Redscout

Gawker Media, which is battling heavily financed digital publishers like BuzzFeed and Vox for audiences and ad dollars, is working with brand-strategy agency Redscout, according to two people familiar with the matter. The relationship began last summer, one person said.Former Gawker employees... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2015-02-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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WSJ vs. Bloomberg: A tale of two marketing campaigns

It's a tough time to be an old-school business publisher, with upstarts like Quartz and even Yahoo Finance muscling in. To combat this, WSJ has launched a new consumer-focused ad campaign featuring will.i.am and Tory Burch that shows how these busy people make time to read the Journal. This,... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2015-02-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Export markets 'mixed' for children's

Children’s publishers and agents have said that the maturation of many book markets globally, in addition to the economic downturn, has meant that the number of deals made with international publishers is slowing. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-02-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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How to choose an operating system for a virtual private server

Internet technologies have penetrated into all areas of our life and changed it dramatically. With their help, people are able to implement most of their activities from reading favorite books and newspapers, communicating with each other, playing online games to booking tickets and buying... Continue reading at Betanews

[ Betanews | 2015-02-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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