In advertising? Here’s what you need to know about virtual and mixed reality.

1. Sell to an already captive audience

Visit any trade show these days and you will see the obligatory VR headset or three, at every stand. This is especially evident at tourism and real estate events. It’s good to see the timely latching onto VR by these industries, and besides being a crowd puller, VR does serve a real purpose.

It purports (we’ll see why the use of that word, in a bit) to transport people to far away lands in a way no other visual communication medium preceding it, ever could. After all, through VR, you are bringing the destination to the customer right there at the trade show – helping them sign on the dotted line to experience the place later, IRL (in real life).

But customers get jaded… pretty quick. Queuing to wear a headset at a trade show, or even the energy needed to slip a phone into a giveaway Google Cardboard viewer might soon lose its novelty.

What most advertisers and marketing departments forget is – what happens after the customer has landed at their destination?

For instance: A trip to a 5 star resort in Krabi, Thailand, has its own luxury attached to it. Once inside the resort – the customer is captive. Why not use VR to sell local attractions? A boat trip to a nearby island, facilities at the resort – the serene interiors of the spa, that the customer might otherwise not venture into?

Usman Farman wrote about this aspect, along with a more basic one: Is your brand story worth telling in VR?

2. Build for room-sized virtual reality.

The current generation of VR head mounted displays are already beginning to show what’s possible with room scale VR. The HTC Vive headset is in the lead. Oculus’ rift and even the Samsung GearVR (a darling of VR marketing depts) will soon have room scale tracking capability.

Yet, I’ve come across many “VR” experiences with very healthy production budgets that do not take advantage of the immersive experience room-sized VR affords.

For example: If the intention is to allow potential customers to experience the interiors of a luxury sedan or indeed, the first-class private quarters of an airline, it would make sense to not diminish the virtual experience by pushing out a 2D 360 video and calling it “VR”.

3. In VR, scale is absolutely relative.

4. Mixed reality – digital surrogates are coming. Help them check-in.

5. Room scale VR + story + agency = presence.