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

Other Publishing stories related to: 'Why Marketers Shouldn't Get Overexcited About Virtual Reality as a Branding Tool'


UK academic library market defies financial squeeze

Publishers and library suppliers say the UK academic library market is faring better than... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #library suppliers


Is Being First Into a New International E-book Market Ever Best?

Evidence suggests that the most successful ebook retailers build on the mistakes of the predecessors and being first-to-market isn't a key to success. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-11-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #evidence suggests


Why Thinking Same-Language Markets are Uniform is a Mistake

Addressing the differences between the various international book markets is one of the missions we have here at Publishing Perspectives. It's perhaps the key reason we exist. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-11-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #key reason


Korea’s Moglue Offers Interactive Publishing Tools for Kids Books

By Dennis Abrams Want to create and publish an interactive children’s book but don’t have a lot of technical expertise?  Now there’s help. New York  ...  Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-11-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #kids books #interactive children


Emerging Markets are Key to Penguin Random House Merger

Overlooked in the much of the discussion of the Penguin Random House merger is just how important Latin America, China and India are to the deal. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-11-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #emerging markets


Find Cost Efficiency Adapting Printing To Today's Realities: Digital Printing in 2012

The book publishing industry is dealing with two conflicting trends at the moment: the number of individual titles produced continues to rise while the number of print units sold continues to fall. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-10-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #digital printing


Rights Market in China is Booming, But Complicated

At Frankfurt's annual Rights Directors Meeting, Wuping Zhao told the audience that Chinese publishers acquired rights to 15,592 foreign titles in 2011, up from just 1,664 in 1995. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #rights market


Eason Opens Virtual Bookshop in Dublin Rail Station

By Alex Mutter Irish book retailer Eason opened a virtual, mobile bookshop at Connolly Station in Dublin on Monday, the Silicon Republic reports. The bookshop’s  ...  Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #mobile bookshop


Eason opens Virtual Book Shop

Eason has opened a “virtual bookshop” in Connolly railway station in Dublin which... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-10-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Books as Brands

Licensing is a growing focus for many publishers as they look to generate awareness and spur book sales for in-house developed and acquired properties, and bring in incremental revenue. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-10-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #incremental revenue


Erotica sales surge, but markets continue to fall

Fifty Shades of Grey has sold more than 28 million physical copies around the world, though... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-10-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #fifty shades


E-books Share of Canadian Market Pegged at 16%

BookNet Canada’s first survey of where Canadians buy books and what types of books they buy found that about 16% of purchases in the first half of 2012 were of ebooks, while paperback remained the most popular format, with a 57% share. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-10-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #booknet canada #popular format


Amazon market share ‘increases dramatically after Kindle buy’

Amazon's market share of book sales significantly increases once a customer buys a Kindle... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-10-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #market share


Waterstones begins new branding push

Waterstones is rolling out a new branding campaign set to emphasise the benefits of shopping in a... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-10-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Five Favorite Online Edit Tools

More than anything, maintaining a website is about keeping its content relevant and up-to-date.Thousands of tools—from all-inclusive content management systems to sidebar widgets—can help online editors manage the task. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2012-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Publishers must be "drivers" of brand

Publishers should be the "drivers‚" of multimedia brand development, undertaking... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-09-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Morris Publishing Creating New Digital Marketing Division

Morris Publishing Group is establishing a partnership with the local digital marketing team of magazine and newspaper publishing firm Hearst. Morris announced today that it reached an agreement with LocalEdge, a Hearst Media Services company, to re ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-09-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


The Ultimate Personal Brand-Builder? Your Very Own App

While reading Ryan Holiday's Fast Company story about books being the ultimate new business card, as a published author, I couldn't agree more. However, as Holiday points out, today's authors are in the "idea-making business, not the book business." In other words, writing your own book is just... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2012-09-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #wordpress blog #crowded marketplace #interactive experience #angry birds #golden ticket #sponsored content


Comixology Drives the E-comics Market

Comixology, a digital comics distributor and marketplace, marks its fifth anniversary this year as it emerges as the clear leader in the digital comics space. The company’s Guided View technology, a much imitated function on its Comics by Comixology app, which allows readers to read digital... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-09-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #e-comics market #mobile devices #kindle fire #including marvel #market share


US sales plunge most in biggest markets

The top US regional book markets have seen print sales drop year on year at a far greater rate... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-09-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #sales plunge #biggest markets