Pokemon isn't the only brand using 360 videos and augmented reality, even if it feels like it right now.
Jason Siegel and his team at marketing and design firm Bluetext have their own vision for how the technology can be used. It's the next stage for the Washington D.C.-based company, which has built digital marketing systems for all kinds of tech companies, ranging in size from local startups like Canvas all the way up to Google. Now, the rising interest in virtual and augmented reality offers new opportunities of which Siegel, Bluetext's founder and chief creative officer, was eager to take advantage.
"It's like an infinite canvas," Siegel told DC Inno in an interview. "There's so much potential in virtual reality and augmented reality."
Siegel has been involved in creative digital marketing since college, when he founded Internet Gravity, later selling it to PR giant Qorvis. He cemented his reputation for picking marketing trends in 2009 when he created an app for the inauguration of President Obama. At the time, the idea of an app for just one geographically limited, one-time event would have been very odd. Now, there are whole mobile platforms built around the concept. He co-founded Bluetext in 2011 with a goal of staying ahead of the trends in the field as it continues to evolve.
"VR is new enough that you can just be on the field and be a hit."
"You're really only as good as your last project," Siegel said. "There's a strategy to picking [the next digital trend]. You want to know when it's more than a fad, like the QR codes that everyone had on business cards for a while."
BlueText picked New York-based cybersecurity firm Varonis as the first client to use its VR ideas. Using the Unity platform to ensure cross-publishing potential, BlueText wrote and filmed a 360 video. The video then went into mobile apps for iOS and Android based on Google Cardboard as well as a two-dimensional version for regular computers. That was necessary to expand the potential audience as Facebook 360 videos are starting to pop up on people's newsfeeds even while most people don't own VR headsets.
"The logistics (of VR and AR) are different, but the replay value matters," Siegel said. "You can watch it more than once, try new things. It's interactive [in a way that] standard video isn't."
While the Varonis project was first, Siegel said the response even at this early stage has been enough to encourage Bluetext to look for more clients that could benefit from the addition of virtual or augmented reality channels. There's no solid formula yet, but that makes the experiments valuable on their own to the clients, he explained.
"VR is new enough that you can just be on the field and be a hit," Siegel said. "It's building to a critical mass but not yet [there]."
Check out the Varonis 360 video below to get an idea of what Bluetext sees as the next step for digital brands.
