How Facebook’s virtual reality shakedown could bring a new dimension to marketing
Little is yet known of Carmel, but one of the demos shown on stage by Zuckerberg during his speech was a product called Photo Spheres, which uses 360-degree photography to make users feel as though they are in a restaurant or a foreign location. Within that space, users can do things like pick up a menu, or make a reservation.
In terms of retail, e-commerce and live experiences, there are almost limitless opportunities this could offer up to brands and consumers. For example, imagine shopping for a new sofa and getting the chance to see what it would look like in your lounge, or 'visiting' a selection of potential wedding venues without having to travel.
Glyn Britton, chief strategy officer at innovation agency Albion believes that VR could be the best place to serve up what she describes at the "fourth era of customer service," which combines the best of local retail with the best of the internet.
"Some people are more than ready for VR, some people will soon be, some are nowhere near ready and some never will be," asserts Azor, adding: I believe one of the biggest barriers to overcome is the fragmented VR/AR/MR landscape."
"Be it Betamax and VHS, or more recently Blu-ray and HD DVDS, it has always slowed down adoption for the masses and that adoption is needed for the technology to become mainstream and for us marketers to start to truly take advantage of what this technology is capable of achieving."
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