Explore how the synergy of AI, Virtual Reality (AR), and Augmented Reality (VR) is revolutionizing marketing through personalized, interactive, and captivating immersive experiences. Discover the transformative power of AI-driven content, real-time analytics, dynamic product visualization, and more.

Tried and true marketing tools and methods will be needed. Consumers now expect more, and fortunately, your business can meet those expectations thanks to augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

Innovations in the digital marketing realm continue to advance rapidly these days, providing marketers with new possibilities and tools to reach customers in more profound and memorable ways.

While AR and VR are not entirely new to marketing, these immersive experiences are getting better and better, with artificial intelligence (AI) now helping to enhance them even more.

Do you or your marketing team want to know how best to use virtual and augmented reality to attract and impress your audience?

We’ve provided you with information, tips, and examples to help you gear your strategy toward success and the future.

• What are Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)?
• How are VRMarketing and AR Marketing Being Used?
• How AI is Enhancing Virtual and Augmented Reality in MarketingBenefits of Using Virtual and Augmented Reality in Marketing
• Challenges and Limitations of VR Marketing and AR Marketing
• Future Trends and Opportunities for VR and AR in Marketing
• Best Practices for Using VR and AR in Marketing
• Two AR and VR Marketing Success Stories
• Prepare for the Future of AI-Enhanced Marketing Strategies
• HUMAN CRAFTED CONTENT

What are Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)?

When choosing either VR or AR, it is essential to understand what they are and how they differ. While both alter reality, how they go about it uniquely differs.

With virtual reality, your audience enters a generated virtual environment of your choosing.

This environment can be realistic or entirely created and fantasy-like. The user immerses themselves in the new reality using physical aids such as goggles, glasses, headphones, or speakers.

Conversely, augmented reality creates an overlay of visual, sensory, or auditory elements for the customer’s real surroundings, changing that reality somehow.

• It is not about transporting your audience to a new world. Instead, it enhances the one they are currently experiencing. Providing AR Marketing can be as simple as putting an app on a smartphone so it’s more accessible.

With VR and AR, consumers no longer have to count on their imaginations or conjure up visual images in their minds. You are providing the vision for them.

How are VR Marketing and AR Marketing Being Used in Marketing?

The wave of the future involves using virtual and augmented reality in marketing to attract a bigger audience, collect data, and better position your promotional strategy to meet the individual needs of your customers.

These new ways of presenting reality can connect consumers to your brand in entirely new ways.

VR and AR technologies continue to expand marketing possibilities for companies in every industry.

These technologies are currently being used in marketing in the following ways:

To create a more personalized experience

By developing virtual or augmented environments that are dynamic in some way, marketers are showing consumers how life will be when they use certain products or services.

VR or AR allows you to move beyond videos and create a more personalized experience.

An example is how the home furnisher IKEA uses AR to market its products.

IKEA provides its target audience with a virtual furniture storeroom, which helps to simplify decisions regarding home decorating and interior design.

Its IKEA Place app allows customers to select a product in the catalog, point their smartphone at a specific area in their home, and see how the product would look in that location.

To provide a try-before-you-buy approach

The newest technology can create retail demonstrations where the consumer digitally tries on a product, such as clothing, accessories, or makeup.

This try-before-you-buy approach saves time for the consumer and provides the answers they need to make faster decisions.

Shoppers see what a certain piece of clothing or other product will look like without going into a physical store.

Beauty product and fragrance retailer Sephora has employed this approach successfully.

Using its beauty try-on feature, customers can see how they would look while wearing different makeup products.

Consumers can digitally apply eye shadow, lipstick, false eyelashes, and numerous other items to find the look they want.

To show more about a brand

Adding AR marketing or VR marketing campaigns can provide additional information about your brand to the audience.

You can use VR to immerse them in a world that highlights your research and development activities or show them how you are making a difference with your social campaigns.

As this technology spreads to more industries, businesses find new ways to promote their brands, boost customer retention and loyalty, and increase sales.

While many examples of its use involve B2C companies, AR and VR are valuable for B2B marketing as well.

How AI is Enhancing Virtual and Augmented Reality in Marketing

Available technologies continue to evolve and enhance the capabilities of AR and VR marketing systems.

Artificial intelligence is one of those evolving technologies that is making waves.

While AI in marketing is still in the beginning stages, its impact is already impressive.

With the addition of AI algorithms, VR and AR experiences can achieve new levels of personalization and interaction. For example, they can adapt to user actions and respond in real-time.

AI can also enhance your marketing efforts with predictive analytics; that is, it can predict the behavior of users to produce more customized and personalized experiences.

For instance, AI can create a more customized shopping experience in a virtual store by analyzing shopper preferences and behaviors to recommend suitable products or services.

As some companies learn how to benefit from using AI in their marketing campaigns, others are already jumping in head first.

Take Walmart, for example. People who shop online for clothes can use the try-on app powered by AI. They start by selecting a model similar in size and height to theirs.

The app uses real-time deep learning and image processing to simulate how the clothes will look on that self-model.

Walmart

Benefits of Using Virtual Reality in Augmented Marketing

As AI-assisted VR and AR use in marketing become more common, clear benefits emerge.

Increases engagement and interactivity

With the creation of more immersive experiences, you provide your audience with more personal ways to engage and interact with your product, brand or service.

Improves brand awareness

The technology can capture your target audience’s attention and introduce your brand to others intrigued by the VR or AR opportunities you offer.

This new audience may have yet to consider purchasing your product or service.

Achieves better customer insights

You can glean better customer insights by gathering data on how consumers interact with your brand through AR or VR.

Using these insights, you could enhance future marketing campaigns and increase personalization.

Quickens the buying process

As consumers continue the buyer’s journey, the purchasing stage can happen faster, thanks to AR or VR experiences.

A consumer can virtually try on your product, whether clothing, shoes, eyewear, or beauty products, and decide more swiftly.

Challenges and Limitations of VR and AR Marketing

While there are valuable advantages to employing VR and AR in your marketing strategies, there are also hurdles.

Higher costs

A significant challenge in VR and AR marketing is the greater expense of using these advanced technologies.

Creating an effective virtual or augmented experience requires specialized software and equipment that are only sometimes available to smaller businesses due to the cost. Incorporating these technologies into your marketing campaigns also takes time and resources.

On the customer’s side, AR or VR devices can come at a hefty price that many are unwilling to pay.

Technical issues

As relatively new and evolving technologies, AR and VR do not have standards yet.

This contributes to technical problems. Customers may need help with their equipment or your company’s app.

This can be frustrating, causing them to mistrust your brand.

The need for specialized skills

Since the technology is so new, relatively few people have the necessary specialized skills.

You must train your marketing team to use AR or VR software and equipment.

This training takes time and effort, pulling them away from their other responsibilities.

Future Trends and Opportunities for VR Marketing and AR Marketing

As technical standards rise and consumer-oriented equipment costs go down, marketers will see increased opportunities to use VR and AR.

Customers, too, will grow accustomed to immersive experiences, and their expectations will rise.

As such, marketing teams must adapt to changing trends to appeal to customers. They’ll have to find ways to incorporate VR and AR into their marketing strategies.

The use of AI will continue to increase as well.

It will become more mainstream and enhance everything from content planning for AR and VR immersive experiences to user data compilation that better personalizes these experiences.

Your business needs to adapt and learn how to use these developments to your advantage.

Companies can start preparing now by experimenting with AR and VR and understanding AI’s power. One beneficial way to accomplish this is to use the technology in other areas, such as content planning and creation.