Innovating is never fast – or easy. But if you are a forward-thinking, marketing director/manager, project manager, or business development manager, you’re probably keen to try marketing with VR/AR. The tricky part is selling the idea to the director or CEO you report to, which is an unavoidable part of branding, marketing, and communications campaigns at mid-size and large companies.

 

If you’re serious about engaging a Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality company – and you need buy-in from a supervisor – here are five questions we know you’re going to be asked.

 

What is it going to cost?

 

Let’s get this one out of the way first. Unfortunately, there is no easy answer. You’ll need to get a quote depending on what you want done, and it’s just part of the process. Each client requests and receives customized services, tailored to their unique products and needs. Although we can’t speak for every VR production company out there, contacting Stambol obligates you in no way and you won’t be hassled to become a client even if we do move forward with a quote.

 

How does it work?

 

We expect every decision-maker to ask questions about how Extended Reality technology functions before engaging a firm for a custom project. If you don’t have a background in IT or graphics, XR tech can be downright mystifying. For Virtual Reality specifically, the quickest, most simplistic answer is that specially prepared images (one slightly different per eye, aka stereoscopy) are viewed through lenses that bend your field of vision tricking your brain into seeing three dimensions instead of two. Since that answer is an extreme oversimplification, we encourage you to read our posts, “VR, AR, MR? Virtualities Made Easy, Kind Of” as well as “How does Virtual Reality work?” to get a more detailed sense of XR tech.

 

What will VR/AR achieve?

 

The use cases for XR products are growing every day. We think VR and AR’s capacity to inform, entertain, sell, and educate is limited purely by the human imagination. While it would be foolish of us to promise that VR will sell out your pre-construction inventory in a day or transform your industrial safety rating to zero incidents overnight, we suggest working with your VR studio to set performance benchmarks that are measurable, reliable, and actionable – all depending on your company’s unique goals.

 

How long will it take?

 

Like any custom software product, VR production and AR production can be done quickly and cheaply or in pain-staking detail over many months. Your needs for both quality and the number of immersive experiences or interactive elements will affect timeline, but your VR studio’s own workload is a factor as well. Discuss your timeline and any key completion dates with your VR studio before work starts and you’ll be in good shape to meet both deadlines and expectations.

 

What do they need from us?

 

A VR studio or AR studio will need surprisingly little from you to start working on a project. Every studio will vary in their own policies, but it could be as simple as a folder of graphics and a creative brief. If you read our VR checklist post last week, you’ve already got an idea of the materials you need to prepare. As with any marketing or graphics partner, it’s critical to share your top priorities and preferred imagery as such when sending files and collateral. Let your VR production team know what are your must-haves and nice-to-haves in an immersive experience, but also be ready to incorporate your studio’s own expertise to maximize your results.

 

You’ve probably gathered that the short answer to each one of these questions is, “It depends.” As frustrating as that can be when you want prices, dates, stats, and as many hard figures as you can gather to submit to your team’s leadership, we hope you’ll find the contextual knowledge above useful in presenting VR/AR solutions as an option for your organization.

 

Stambol disruptors have the expertise to answer questions and allay concerns from even the most cautious and skeptical manager. Believe us, we’ve been there ourselves.

 

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