Up the magician’s sleeves is your “XR”!
Author — Shreni Peddi (LinkedIn)
Imagine if you could go back to the ’70s and exhibit your future phone’s capabilities? Age-old movies showed us such science fiction but now XR is turning it into reality while proving to be a game-changer in every aspect of Gen Z’s digital presence. With high powered GPU devices, 5G networks, 3D scanners, and social media tools at the helm of households, the ground has already been prepared for the grand foray of 3D digital experience into real estate, lifestyle, automotive, fashion, home décor, virtual training, education, and many other businesses.
With about 70% of the world’s population being digitally literate, digital content often becomes the first point of contact to customers either through social media platforms, websites, print media, emails, or marketing campaigns. To meet such demand, 3D content is equipped with not just dimensionality and perspective but also an experience. Despite connecting from anywhere in the world, 3D Content will give immersive and interactive experiences and let people feel the presence. For example, the Upload series on Amazon Prime gives you a glimpse of how realistic virtual reality can be albeit the pros of real life.
The Potential
Digital marketing & sales
Digital marketing & sales is now essential service for any brand competing for customer retention. Interactive labels, augmented analytics, AR billboards, AR face filters, AR product configurators have already deep-dived into every business that is investing a sizable portion of their revenues to create digital content. Eventually, the need for personalization, customization, data-driven content generation, preferential product manufacturing, and finally try before you buy models are the go-to principles in these fields. Almost all automobile companies such as Tesla, Audi, Benz now support 3D configurators to boost sales and take pride in integrating new-age technologies.
E-commerce
E-commerce, with its pathways intruding into small businesses, has seen an increase in customization and personalization, owing to user personas varying across the world. While COVID-19 taught us the importance of going digital in all aspects of life, the highly profitable e-commerce industry is set to take up major leaps in XR. From top players such as Nike, Adidas, and Reebok’s support to virtual try-ons to 3D support packages for the simple word press e-commerce sites, the offline-online gap is being bridged by XR content. It is not going to be long that not having an XR package will now solicit reassessment of brand value from the customer’s end.
Social Shopping
Mixed Reality Social shopping is where shoppers’ friends become involved in the shopping experience via avatars to mimic the social interactions found in physical malls and stores. Virtual make-up try-ons from Maybelline, Loreal, etc. are some of the marketing models that these aspirational brands are using to build personalized environments with interactive brand experience. A general market research on digital marketing vs AR/VR for brand products will reveal the multitude of options that 3D experiences will have. Thus social sharing & photorealistic twin-experiential models shall now redefine manufacturing and marketing.
Education & VR Training
With the advent of remote learning, the idea of making education individualized, personal and effective has pushed the limits of teaching into providing XR-educational field trips such as reconstructing historical cities, zooming in paintings. One such example is the Google Expeditions Pioneer Program or Discovery VR. XR projects now involve collaborative dissections not just for animal or human anatomy but for large machines as well with one such example being Microsoft Mesh.
As a start go ahead and try Google 3D animals on your phone. Experience the joy of having a pet parrot on your study table and wonder, if tomorrow all you see are only VR showrooms marketing products virtually while your avatar’s try on and order them, all from home!
