Staff Reporters
Mar 9, 2016

360-degree video: Creating complete audience immersion

MEDIA TALK: While VR is still an area of experiments, brands now explore the 360-degree video as SNS platforms make it possible.

L-R: Dirk Eschenbacher. Ivy Wong
L-R: Dirk Eschenbacher. Ivy Wong

Participants

  • Dirk Eschenbacher, founding partner, Zanadu 
  • Ivy Wong, founder and CEO, VS Media

360-degree video is all the rage right now. Will it last and why?

  • Eschenbacher: If hardware, software and content creators push hard, I’m sure there will be a promising future.
  • Wong: The investment is there. Facebook rolled out to support 360-degree videos in September. Tencent started VR platform in November and is now looking for 360-video partners.

Should brands be exploring 360-degree video as a marketing tool?

  • Eschenbacher: In many cases it paid off for brands to be an early adopter. VR could be a mass medium as early as 2017. If headsets are shipped with mobile phones or game consoles, branded content could potentially reach a substantial audience.
  • Wong: 360-degree video can help audiences engage more with content. Big brands like Nescafé, Mercedes-Benz, AT&T and Samsung are already doing it.

How is 360-degree any better than normal video from a marketing standpoint?

  • Eschenbacher: 360-degree, like regular video, is only as good as the story it tells. If you have a good story that uses the possibility of 360 degrees, it makes the viewer discover things by physically moving around.
  • Wong: Data shows that audiences generally spend more time and engage more deeply in 360-degree video content.

What are the biggest opportunities?

  • Eschenbacher: There is a good opportunity to create interesting 360 content that gets talked about and shared among VR adopters.
  • Wong: We are producing a 360-degree travelogue video and looking to embed calls-to-action in the video. Users will be able to click on clothing items and go straight to purchasing it. These kinds of touch points offer a lot of opportunities for brands.

What are the biggest challenges?

  • Eschenbacher: There is definitely a challenge regarding technology and production at the moment. How to involve brand or place products in a 360 video, rather than spend too much money and time to learn how to produce a 360 video.
  • Wong: How to involve brand or place products in a 360 video, rather than spend too much money and time to learn how to produce a 360 video.

What’s the best example you’ve seen of 360-degree video in marketing?

  • Eschenbacher: Our short film, The Dream. It’s a story of a young man who has a recurring dream, in which he looks for someone.
  • Wong: Nescafé launched a good video designed for Facebook, featuring real people at breakfast around the world starting their day with Nescafé. The idea was simple and fit the 360 format. 

 

Source:
Campaign Asia

Related Articles

Just Published

14 hours ago

Agency Report Card 2024: Mindshare

Mindshare faced significant setbacks in APAC in 2024, losing nearly a billion dollars in client business and falling out of Campaign's top 20 rankings, highlighting the need for strategic renewal.

15 hours ago

2025 Cannes Contenders: Dentsu APAC leaders place ...

From the grippingly serious to the hilariously eccentric, three Dentsu creative and product leaders across APAC give their nods to award-worthy work that may win a Cannes Lions next week.

17 hours ago

'Media isn’t a commodity. Treating it like one is a ...

Ruben Schreurs tells Campaign why litigation, platform volatility, and outdated media models are distorting decision-making—and why advertisers need to focus less on adjacency panic, and more on strategic clarity.

17 hours ago

WPP never seized control of its destiny under Mark ...

Departing CEO had some notable successes, but the company has struggled.