Immersive media, virtual reality and a new form of media

Engagement is great, but immersion is the future. The former takes place when a marketing message provokes some sort of action among an audience—a share, a tweet or an endorsement to a friend. Immersion is when you forget the message entirely, forget you are the audience even, and instead fall into a newly manufactured reality.

To compliment a presentation I made recently at the IAB’s Pathway to Social Wisdom conference on the topic of immersive media and why it will become ever more important to social strategies, below are a number of examples of new immersive media experiences, references and links to more information.

For anyone that missed the presentation - a key take-away from the presentation is this:

The convergence of technology, creativity, and data now means that what can and cannot be done is now largely only limited to our imaginations.

In the future, social networks will be gateways to immersive new worlds where consumers will be able to do anything, be anything and be anywhere, at any time. Social strategies will have to pivot towards techniques that invite users into these manufactured realities, hosted and built on social media platforms.

The opportunities for brands are enormous – it’s viewed by many as the dawn of a new form of media. It’s a fascinating subject and one set to dominate digital strategies in the decades to comply. 

NY Times VR:

Experience stories reported by award-winning journalists, all told in an immersive, 360-degree video experience.

The Guardian:

What’s it like to be in solitary confinement – a virtual experience

Huffington Post Ryot – Become the story in 360

Google Tilt Brush – a new VR tool from Google

Watch more brand 360 videos in order of popularity on Facebook

Tools

50M downloads to date of Google’s Cardboard App - https://vr.google.com/cardboard/get-cardboard/

Shorthand.com – Beautifully immersive story-telling, as used by the world’s leading publishers.

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Facebook 360 - Discover and watch 360 videos from around Facebook.

YouTube 360 – Discover more 360 videos published on YouTube.