D o You Need VR For Your Business?
There is no doubt that 2016 is a big year for Virtual Reality. Facebook is coming out with Oculus, Sony will debut Morpheus and HTC is partnering up with Valve to release Vive. Each company has made deep financial commitments to the success of their individual platforms and will be clawing for market share. All of that happens in Q1 of 2016.
So what does that mean for your business? Virtual Reality is poised to fundamentally change the landscape of content consumption. Where there’s a change to content there are lightning fast changes to marketing. Here at Zbra Studios, we have been fielding a flurry of concerned businesses owners who want to know what they need to do in response to the impending arrival of VR.
And for most of them the answer is… nothing.
Yes. Virtual reality is a big deal. Yes. It’s going to change everything. But there’s a spectrum of two extremes. On one side, you have companies whose existence depends on taking the correct approach to this new technology. On the other side, you have business that may never have to invest a flicker of thought to Virtual reality.
How do you know which side your business falls on? We’ve created a quick quiz below to help you sort that out.
First, If you don’t have a minimum budget of 3K to get started, don’t bother with the quiz. Prices for creating Virtual Reality experiences will come down drastically in the next two years. Revisit the question once your budget lines up with the cost of starting VR production.
Now, on with the quiz!
1. Your business has a unique and interesting location.
0-5 points (Lawyer’s office = 0, Disneyland = 5)
2. Your customers are interested in your process.
0-5 points (Public Notary = 0, Hollywood Director = 5)
3. Your content sits behind a paywall.
No = 0, Yes = 5
4. Your content is supported by advertisements.
No = 0, Yes = 5
5. Your content would be instructive.
No = 0, Yes = 5
6. There’s limited access to what you sell.
0-5 points (McDonalds = 0, NFL = 5)
7. Your content is visual.
Rated 0-5 points (Lawyer = 0, Tour Guide = 5
8. Your content would provide a kinesthetic experience.
Rated 0-5 points (Lawyer = 0, Disneyland = 5
9. What percentage of your customer base consists of early adopters.
Rated 0-5 points
10. What percentage of your customer base is considered affluent.
Rated 0-5 points
11. What percentage of your customer base consists of gamers.
Rated 0-5 points
12. How high would you rate your customers enthusiasm for your product or services?
Rated 0-5 points
13) How excited are you to make VR content?
0-5 points (not interested = 0, can’t wait = 5)
0-10 points: Don’t bother. It won’t be worth the investment. Reassess in 2017.
11-20 points: Keep watch over the market. Reassess in June of 2016
21-65 points: Start now. The higher your score, the more energy you should invest in VR for your company.
Let’s get down to business.
Nick Cotton is a project manager based out of Los Angeles, California. He’s got a background in the entertainment industry, and uses his talent at online messaging to extol the virtues of content marketing, interactive fiction and sentences measuring 280 characters or less.
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