Immersive Technology, its Enormous Benefit to Businesses

Updated: Jan 29

Engagement and inspiration are among many reasons leading companies and forward-thinking brands are creating highly immersive marketing experiences. These may include Augmented Reality (AR) for product ‘try-ons’ and visualisation as well as storytelling with full immersion using Virtual Reality (VR)

Considering the many benefits immersive technology open to your business let’s explore a few ways you might use them?

‘Try before you buy’

More and more retail companies are integrating AR/VR into their customers experience. The concept of ‘try-before-you-buy’ is vastly expanding and revolutionising industry sectors including travel, home buying, automotive, fashion and retail.

The travel sector has often led the way immersing holiday seekers and overseas investors to ‘experience’ exotic locations and means of travel.

Clothing brand Gucci introduced an AR app which enables the user to try on shoes virtually, consumers feel more engaged with their favourite products when they interact with it and are more compelled to buy

In 2021 VINTEC worked with Nissan to introduce the newly modeled Qashqai to the automotive press at a ‘live launch’ which coincided with Covid lock-downs, hence a group shared VR experience enabled the world press a virtual first glimpse of the car, a message from the CEO and privileged press access. The campaign continued into the consumer realm with AR being deployed within showplaces triggered by related marketing material

Speed up decision making during design

Saving money, product design and prototyping is another field where the immersive technologies, especially virtual reality can very efficiently reduce unnecessary cost.

Virtual prototyping enables designers to see the product or a building from different angles, under different lighting or in various environments helping to make important decisions about materials or colours.

Every design process needs time and iterations, virtual reality lowers the number of physical prototypes needed and increases the precision of each iteration. the one-time cost of developing these immediately outweighs the cost of physical prototypes or worse still, wrong decisions.

Iconic car designers Pininfarina recently launched the stunning Teorama designed entirely using VR. “Pininfarina has always looked to the future using concept cars as an innovation tool to chart the direction and introduce new visions in terms of usability and technology in the automotive industry,” said Kevin Rice, Pininfarina CEO

In the Public Sector VINTEC worked with Southend Borough Council during 2019 to visualise several options for the redevelopment of its Victoria shopping region. These options included numerous layouts, building finishes and greenery. This enabled key decision makers and stakeholders to view the options ‘back-to back as built’ leading to enormous cost savings on prototyping and ad hock design changes. The development is now well underway after an informed unanimous decision was reached using VR

Showcase products all over the world

Is your product too big to be transported to a foreign expo and shown to potential customers? A photograph or 2D visualization might not trigger the decision but a realistic 3D model in virtual reality helps to convince buyers. They will not only see how the machine or a product works in real-time, but they can also interact with it.

Our team worked with Teledyne E2V to showcase their highly delicate lasers and housings used within MRI scanners. These items were far too costly, delicate and logistically difficult to transport to meetings and events. We created a 1:1 photo-real MRI ward which enabled the user to remove, explore and see in minute detail each component

Collaborate on a global scale

Sometimes the ‘right people’ need to be ‘together’ at the ‘right time’ Bringing specialists from different parts of the world together to work on developing your product is often close to impossible and is always very costly. International travel may be limited post Covid for some time yet.

Collaborative Virtual Reality makes it possible for international teams to work together more efficiently. From any location colleagues connect and collaborate efficiently, share insights and innovate much faster they ‘create, customise & collaborate’ working within the same environment, using the same model and sharing feedback in real time. With maximum productivity

Train and educate your employees

Provide your employees with a safer, more productive way of training and education. From pilots and miners to maintenance or healthcare staff, your workers can learn routine procedures and practice their skills without the need for real-world training which may be costly or hazardous.

For example: Air Cabin crew will hopefully never in their career experience an emergency landing requiring them to perform an opening of the emergency exits and slides. They must however be fully trained on how to do so. Videos and written content go some way in this but simulating the actions required within a timed, pressured VR experience enable them to train muscle memory so that should the event happen, they automatically respond, they have ‘done this before’ so to speak!

Outrun the competition and transform your field

Let your customers experience your mission in the first person, instead of showing them a leaflet. The power of storytelling is incredibly strong when used right. It can create an unforgettable bind to any brand and cause buying for life. There is no price tag you can put on a loyal and supportive client. And this amongst so many other ways is why the forward thinkers, the trail blazers and the vast majority of today's leading organisations use technologies including Virtual Reality, Holograms and Augmented Reality within their arsenal of impact marketing and training tools

VINTEC Immersive collaborate with organisations and public sectors to consult, design and develop highly effective immersive experiences

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Author: Vincent McAtamney | August 2021

Vincent has over 30 years’ experience using technology and AV experiences to move and connect people. He is the founder of Immersive Technology content creators VINTEC. He consults with public sectors and businesses to solve common problems, increase engagement and productivity using immersive and new technologies.

www.vintecimmersive.com