Everyone remembers that shot of Mark Zuckerberg stood in a room of people all wearing VR headsets at the Samsung Galaxy S7 launch. There was something creepy and vaguely Orwellian about the picture. Twitter comedians jumped on it and started firing out the jokes while pithy think-pieces referencing The Matrix were on every blog around.
The one comment that came up time and time again was what was the point of them all being there if they were just strapping on a headset? It might be the most obvious point to take but that doesn’t stop it being a good one.
So why have we ignored it then?
Since that photo, VR has grown and consumers have several products on the market to choose from. The pure novelty of experiencing VR for the first time is rapidly disappearing but time and time again we still see the technology shoehorned into live experiences.
Let’s be blunt here, if you’ve convinced people to spend time and money to get somewhere just to stick a headset on them you are wasting an opportunity. You’ll be out of a job as soon as people realise they can get that exact experience at home.
Our use of VR in the future will rely on us creating engaging virtual experiences people can plug into from anywhere. If the event is live, then focus on making it memorable and unique. Don’t just use the latest technology with no thought towards how it improves the experience.
Matt Huckle is communications manager at Brand and Deliver.
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