Hallucinogen without side effect

Neverland Space is currently showing the virtual reality artwork "XOL" by Los Angeles-based visual artist and musician Lionel Williams. A mystical universe of colors and sounds, XOL offers a fascinating opportunity for people interested in hallucinogens but afraid of the possible side effects. Or as Yves Sinka, one of the founders of Neverland Space and digital agency Y7K, describes the VR artwork, "Virtual reality can trick the brain, shutting out the outside world while leaving the viewer totally immersed, without the side effects of a chemical down." With the VR goggles, you actually feel immersed in a virtual world.

The possibilities of this technology seem unlimited - from e-commerce to 360° architecture models to branding, retail or event experiences. "Virtual reality offers possibilities for addressing customers that are otherwise not found in marketing to this extent," says Patrik Marty, Managing Partner Responsive. This is because the inundation with advertising measures has long triggered a high level of ignorance. VR, on the other hand, offers a virtual world that can captivate customers on every level and thus emotionally connect them with the brand or product.

Google is also hot on the heels of the virtual reality world. With Project Tango, a technology has been developed that enables the system to understand space and movement.
But even with Google's Cardboard glasses, a lot is already possible. It does not offer nearly the same virtual experience as VR glasses from Oculus Rift, for example, but the user can be captivated by interactivity. With Tilt Brush, the user can paint three-dimensional spaces. So while a drawing is created via the movement of the hands, the painter can simultaneously move around in these newly created spaces. This is explained clearly on YouTube: "Tilt Brush The Lab at Google Cultural Institute". Few users are already in possession of VR glasses. Those who are not willing to make the trip to the Museum of Transport or other VR installations can also download the virtual worlds directly on their home computers. However, the animation is omitted - what remains is a 360° video. With Google Cardboard and the corresponding app, these can be watched afterwards without much extra effort. Google's Cardboard glasses are already being used extensively in various areas - precisely because they are so inexpensive. For example, for a movable panoramic view of Google Maps. They offer a virtual world that can be slipped into a trouser pocket at any time. Youtube already has its own channel just with 360° videos. Since these possibilities for 360° video on a brand channel, as well as the 360° advertising videos in True View format (pre-roll) can be used independently by all companies, agencies and advertisers, Google does not have any actual partnerships - the advertising companies do this on their own. Basically, any company, any advertiser can create a 360° video for Youtube.

Some famous 360° advertising/branding videos from Switzerland:

Swiss Int'l Airlines from January 2016 on the occasion of the Lauberhorn downhill in Wengen

Grisons Tourism

MySwitzerland.com with a 360° ski run in Laax

Samsung Switzerland to the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge with Knackeboul

SRF Reportage in 360

Blick.ch with 360° Airbus Swiss View

While for a few VR is already no longer a novelty, but part of the gaming leisure, virtual reality still offers the average user a new world - wow effect guaranteed. This world can not only appeal to the user emotionally, but also without distraction. Are new marketing opportunities opening up here, is it still too early and the technologies not yet developed enough, or is VR just a hype that will fizzle out just as quickly as it came? Virtual reality (VR) is conquering the art market, the first VR glasses are entering the market - what's the hype about?

Virtual Reality - a Hype with a Future

Yves Sinka, co-founder of digital agency Y7K, is convinced of the marketing benefits of virtual reality; he sees the hype as a trend with staying power.

Advertising Week: Virtual Reality - Hype or Trend 2016?
Yves Sinka: Virtual reality will certainly offer many exciting possibilities in the future, both in the arts and in marketing. However, the technology is not yet ready to implement this in a targeted manner. In 2016, virtual reality will definitely not yet conquer our marketing world.

What opportunities do you see in VR for marketing in Switzerland in the future?
Sinka: The possibilities are boundless in the future. One area is certainly e-commerce or the real estate market. But VR could also be used in many ways for event marketing, retail or brand experience. But in addition to the technological implementation, the interest of the customers is clearly still missing in Switzerland - who has an Oculus Rift at home today that still costs around 800 francs? Gamers, perhaps. VR is certainly most likely to be established in the gaming sector.

Which VR projects stood out to you?
Sinka: The outdoor brand North Face, for example, has offered an indoor experience in the store, with virtual reality glasses. The film shows the ascent of a mountain climber, which the Oculus user can follow live. But here, the climber simply had a 360° camera on his back, so the user could follow what was happening around him. Very impressive! But really nothing more than a 360° movie. This is not really virtual reality marketing yet, in my opinion - but is going in that direction. Often these projects are in the "now and wow" category. That's how VR is being used a lot right now. Sapient Nitro, for example, has released a tool for the real estate market. With the glasses in their office, the customer can view the various apartments. There is definitely a business idea behind this.

What fundamentals are still missing in the first place for a solid implementation of VR for marketing?
Sinka: The problem right now is that various fundamentals are missing. For example: Where is the consumer group that has such glasses? The VR glasses from Oculus, for example, were all beta versions and so expensive that almost no one has them. You also need to have a good Windows computer to use the glasses. Macs aren't even supported yet, to my knowledge. Just from a user perspective, virtual reality is still a niche product. Therefore, the assertion in the room that 2016 is the year of the virtual experience is still a bit of a stretch. In addition, there is the generation of content. The technology is not yet advanced enough to create good content. Sure, there are already good 360° videos. But these are often very heavily edited, because otherwise you would see the whole film crew. Accordingly, such videos are still difficult to shoot because lighting and sound are not as easy to influence as is usually the case with moving images.

Which industry do you see as a pioneer for VR ?
Sinka: To be honest: the porn industry. Porn tends to be a pioneer in the field of video, as this is where customers are most willing to buy the corresponding gadgets - i.e. VR glasses, which still cost around 800 francs today. In other areas, such as art or e-commerce, the glasses will certainly come into play sooner. It's just that in these industries, it's more likely to be individual projects. A clothing brand, for example, could set up the glasses in the changing room so that customers can test virtually and without effort which combination of clothes suits them. As I said, there are many possibilities. The only thing is that the technology is not yet mature enough, and VR glasses are usually only found in private homes among the technology freaks - including us at the agency.

Facts
Neverland Space, a project by the Zurich agency Y7K, is an online gallery that puts digital art in the spotlight. It shows works that thrive on the Internet: GIFs, anima-tions, virtual sculptures, videos and virtual reality. The gallery doesn't normally exhibit in a physical space. "But for XOL, it makes sense," says Yves Sinka, one of the gallery's founders. That's because the VR art project gives visitors a chance to experience virtual reality live. The project is on display at the QWSTION Invites store in Zurich. Y7K is offering a VR workshop together with Hinderling Volkart at the end of May. Here you learn the basics to create a small VR experience. Werbewoche is giving away two places: Send an email with a short motivation to verlosung@werbewoche.ch.

A new world of marketing

At the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne, visitors will be able to experience the construction of the two Gotthard rail tunnels and the Ticino region up close with one of the first public 3D virtual reality applications until this fall. A different world whose pull could give marketing a new direction in many ways, Patrik Marty and Tuan Nguyen, Managing Partners of Responsive, are convinced.

Werbewoche: The virtual world for Ticino Turismo at the Museum of Transport in Lucerne has a strong appeal. What opportunities do you see for VR in general?
Patrik Marty: Virtual reality allows users to go where they otherwise cannot - whether for physical or temporal-spatial reasons: With VR, for example, we can visit past or future times and feel like we're really there. We can move around in spaces without moving. There are historical or forbidden spaces that can be visited with VR. We can travel long distances, looking around the Grand Canyon while we're actually confined to bed. And we can go to places we are physically unable to visit - like watching the Wernli Guetzli baking inside an oven.

What direction is VR taking for marketing?
Marty: We already use VR in many different ways. On the one hand, for real estate providers: A building that has not yet been built can be viewed before it has been built. The user can also see what the view from the balcony would be like, for example, photographed by a drone. The user has a 360° view of the individual rooms, can move around freely in them and can see into every corner of the apartment thanks to 3D objects calculated in real time. There are plans for even more interactivity in the future - especially for this application. For example, the user of the future should also be able to lift, turn and adjust objects, but also design new objects himself and thus furnish the room himself. Our core competence to date has been in the conception and realization of highly involving sweepstakes. We see a lot of synergies with VR in the future. This way, people can immerse themselves in the brand world at POS, trade fairs, events, etc. via VR glasses. And here, too: The more interactivity, the more people can use their hands, for example, and help shape the world themselves, the more they are also emotionally involved. Virtual reality thus offers completely new ways of addressing customers, captivating them at every level and thus connecting them emotionally with the brand or product. What's more, in the virtual world, the user is 100 percent focused on the brand or product; there is nothing to distract them. When the user is in the virtual world, in the brand world, he sees exactly what I want him to see. That has never been possible with any other medium.

How do customers react to your suggestions to integrate VR into a campaign, for example?
Marty: The demand is definitely there - but for many, VR is still pretty unknown. But a lot of the convincing is done as soon as a customer puts on the glasses and enters the virtual world and really becomes aware of its possibilities.

What is the advantage of a 3D animation over a 360° video?
Tuan Nguyen: The technology required for VR glasses is already available in the gaming world. Games are already predestined for VR. You dive into foreign worlds and interact with them, you can walk everywhere and use every object. With VR, you're now in the middle of it instead of just being there. These previously unheard of possibilities can now be used by our customers for their needs and target group. A 360° video, on the other hand, is more like a movie that you watch passively without being able to interact. With 360° videos, I cannot look behind a tree, whereas this is possible with a world created in 3D, and the user can also cut down the tree with a virtual axe, for example - this is not possible with a film. So the advantages of a world created in 3D are clear.

Virtual reality also enables new applications in the course of enhanced interactivity. Especially in e-commerce or in the event sector.
Marty: Exactly! As soon as a user has an avatar of his own body at his disposal, he can dress himself without having to change clothes - and can still easily look at himself from all sides, for example, whether the jeans fit from behind. This is just one example of applications that I could imagine for the future. With VR, you can do practically anything, it doesn't leave anything out. In the end, it's just a question of effort. Organic objects, for example, which may also move, are much harder to animate than geometric figures. Here, the technologies will still improve a lot.

It sounds like VR could almost completely replace many areas of social contact in the future.
Marty: At the first moment when you use such glasses, you still think "Wow, now you don't have to go anywhere, you could also just live in a box and still experience everything and be everywhere - VR makes it possible to create your own world. But looking back from experience, there was already a fear with the telephone that people would become lonely. The same was true with the spread of radio, television, the Internet and, currently, the smartphone. But the opposite is the case: people have never been on the road so much and have never communicated with each other so much. VR won't stop people from traveling either, but rather perhaps give them a taste - like using Google Earth, for example, you can get a first impression via virtual reality and then decide where you want to go and also see in real life. Nguyen: There's certainly a good reason why Facebook is interested in VR. As I've read, Mark Zuckerberg's longer-term goal is a "connected world." So the plan with VR is probably going in that direction. In the future, users may be able to put on VR goggles and talk to their grandmother on the other side of the globe in the same room.

There are currently three VR glasses on the market.
Nguyen: As far as hardware requirements and setup are concerned, everything comes from the gaming sector. Even the VR goggles. On the one hand, there is the Oculus Rift today. Then there's the Playstation VR, which will be released in the fall and will be the most affordable. This is therefore probably where the proliferation will take place the most; not only because of the price, but especially because the hardware (Playstation 4) is already available in many households. The third pair of glasses is an HTC Vive. This has the advantage that you can physically move around in the room with the glasses.

Basically: VR 2016, hype with a future or ephemeral trend with wow effect?
Nguyen: The technologies are certainly still expandable, especially with regard to animations with organic objects. The gaming industry will initially be the largest industry in this area - Playstation, for example, has 36 million users. Anyone who has the appropriate glasses will be there, but then they can also use them for other applications, so the use of glasses will move beyond the gaming world. Marty: I'm sure the mobile version of VR will see pretty big adoption as early as this year. But the consumer version of Oculus Rift, if ordered today, will arrive in July at best. And then the corresponding hardware (PC with extremely powerful processing power and graphics card) is still missing - so for home consumption, this year will certainly not be the big breakthrough yet. That's why we currently recommend VR campaigns at fixed locations - such as museums, trade fairs, events, factory stores - where we bring the hardware and the target group can consume VR. We see huge potential at trade fairs in particular. The first feedback is extremely positive, VR is a very strong eye-catcher. Many have only read about it, still very few have already been able to use VR glasses and simply want to try them out. However, the hardware will soon become cheaper as soon as the broad masses are interested in it and thus the demand also increases. Oculus, for example, already offers attractive bundles - glasses including a VR-capable PC. I am convinced that VR will become widespread in the next two to three years.

Once such distribution occurs, however, users will not necessarily want to watch marketing films.
Nguyen: There will certainly be an acclimatization and the expectations for VR, as with all new media, will constantly increase. At the same time, the tools are getting better and better and so are the possibilities, so that we can keep up with the rising expectations - for example, with the inclusion of the hands.

Facts
On March 23, the Responsive agency celebrated a premiere with Ticino Turismo and invited guests in the presence of Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard and presenter Christa Rigozzi at Switzerland's most visited museum. At the new special exhibition "NRLA - Gateway to the South", visitors may take a seat on one of the three VR stations and experience an impressive journey through space and time in a particularly detailed 360° world. The agency Responsive, which specializes in online, mobile and VR applications, designed the entire VR presence on site for the customer and guest at the Museum of Transport Ticino Turismo and designed and implemented the application in-house. The stations were built in style with discarded original SBB saloon car seats by object builder Cyrus Schwabe also completely in Switzerland - including two mobile Oculus stations completely integrated in aluminum rolling cases. Responsive is happy to present VR on site - the mentioned applications as well as further demos can be experienced directly at the agency's location.

Interviews: Ursina Maurer