ARVRtech collaborated with the Museum of Vojvodina on a project about the greatest archeological exhibition in Vojvodina over the course of a last half of the century, dealing with the archaeological remains in Curug.

The exhibition was opened on the evening of 30 January, 2018 thanks of the courtesy of two remarkable experts in the field of museology, art and history from the Russian Federation and Serbia respectively.

Mr Aleksej Gendjevich Furasjev, the archeologist from The State Hermitage Museum in Sankt Petersburg addressed the audience, while Mr Stanko Trifunović, the author of the exhibition is the museum host and council, archeologist by his vocation.

The ancient world and lives of our ancestors from previous centuries are more vivid thanks to the latest and finest technology such as animation, 3D models, Augmented and Virtual Reality.

The main idea of the exhibition is that the visitors experience the everyday life of our ancestors from days bygone to the finest detail. As if embarking on time machine, the museum guest observes all the major events from an Iron Age until the end of the Ottoman regime.

What is more, Curug’s artifacts reveal how the science and culture are connected with tourism and economy, as in developed societies of our time and place.

The application called Simeon Zoric is based on AR and it resembles a special time machine. It was created just in Serbian with only visual support and without audio files.

In the exhibition we experience how families took care of their offspring in the early childhood and how they spent time together; how craftsmanship and warrior practice developed, as well as how religious practice and customs were established, especially in times when the beloved ones passed away.

Thus, the segment of the exhibition called the Childhood in Court was web-based, whereas in the segment Battles in the Crimean War, the visitor can view directly from the screen the 3D model of Simeon in different periods of life: as very young, in the Crimean War episode, and in later periods of his life.

There is also the VR version adaptable for different headsets called Curug at the Forefront of Mighty Powers (in Serbian: “Čurug na udaru imperija”).

The objects of everyday life, as well as the forgotten, old inscriptions of historians that were written during the golden ages of Curug appear in front of the eyes of the contemporary museum visitors.

Application Fairy guides the museum audience as the mythological creature in 3D format. Curug’s fairy explains all archaeological findings and artifacts in the English and Serbian version.

The episodes of fairy’s storytelling in 3D are related to: farmers and ranchers (i.e. early agriculture), early industry and craftsmanship: pottery, metallurgy and bone treatment; then clothing and ornamentation, trade, waging battles with particular weapons; taking care of children and helping them play; then material reflections of spirituality that are observed in decoration motifs and symbols; customs and religion; and the world of the dead.

Towards the end of February ARVRtech experienced Paris as the innovation hub thanks to the global event and B2B platform called Paris region entreprises.

This niche, high level networking event was tailor-made to the needs of companies that exclusively develop AR and VR solutions.

ARVRtech was in a company of 12 startups and SMEs from 8 countries: Belgium, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, UK, US. All those companies have a laser focus on the implementation of VR and AR, such as Blippar, Aumenta Solutions, Big Boy Systems, DAQRI, VividQ and some more.

All these startup founders presented their solutions to 36 decision makers from 23 large corporations who want to implement innovation in their big ecosystems: Accenture, Air France, Air France Industries, Alibaba Cloud, Cisco, 3D Experience Lab – Dassault Systemes, EDF, ENGIE, GRDF, Figaro Media, Fujitsu, HSBC, Oracle, Orange, Otium Venture, Panasonic, Servier, Sanofi, SAP, SNCF, Ubisoft, Valeo, Vinci.

Our company was selected to pitch its solution among registered startups, while our co-founder Boris Pokric had a chance to present our company as well as its innovative AI based VR platform for education and enterprise training called Immersive4Learning.

Another benefit for ARVRtech at this event in Paris was that we could meet face-to-face big businesses that pursue greater innovation in their operations and teams. Therefore, we received valuable feedback for our Immersive4Learning prototype and already used solutions in industrial trainings.

Boris was very satisfied with the quality of organization at Paris region enterprises because it raised the bar B2B meetings are conducted in still a novel area: AR and VR; how expertise is exchanged and how partnerships can be formed. He had a whole day of one-to-one meetings with international companies interested in AR and VR solutions and now it is about synergizing with other departments of the company: engineering and marketing how clients’ visions and requirements can be turned into reality.

Due to a significant number of participants from the world of startups and large companies, more than 155 one-to-one meetings were conducted.

ARVRtech is delighted about the feedback we received from the industry professionals we met.

Statistics that was mentioned to us during the program several times Statistics that was mentioned to us during the program several times shows the practicality of doing business in France: companies that work with wider Paris region have the access to 500 million consumers on the European market; 150.000 people are involved in research in more than 1000 labs (which in the field of AR and VR can be particularly important), whereas some of the most compelling R&D tax incentives are in this part of Europe.

Therefore, we are on the verge of starting new projects and consider French companies as ready for the implementation of VR and AR in their business systems, especially for training purposes and for factory systems.

Image: Invest in Paris Region

Paris region entreprises set the standard how AR/VR tech B2B meetings, knowledge exchange and partnerships should be conducted.

This event format was created with the premise that Paris is the first region in Europe for F500 HQs and that through work with wider Paris region you have the access to 500 million consumers on the European market. 26 companies from all over the world and more than 20 large corporations took part at the central AR/VR Tech meeting.

Thus, in 2018 Paris region event was exclusively devoted to professionals who are developing solutions based on AR/VR in the field such as Eye Tracking, Mixed Reality, Haptics, 3d Sensors, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Motion Tracking, 3d capture.

Not even a snow could stop AR/VR professionals from coming together and joining their business infrastructure. Dassault Systèmes Otium and Accenture participated in the panel and together with others on immersive technologies they provided the information: that although the VR technology is ready, user experience can significantly improve. In terms of AR: user acceptance is easier (due to availability of the gadgets – mobile phones). Still, tech can improve. Some of the challenges facing immersive technologies is to reach escape velocity where ergonomics, precision and scalability become the most important focuses.

The event had a crystal clear purpose for international startups as well as large corporations: it involved matchmaking, B2B personal meetings, a panel discussion and the pitch session.

In the video Ghislain Bourgin, program manager for the business innovation in CISCO (USA) stated that their company ‘’choose to invest 200 million EUR as a venture capital in France is because of a really developed entrepreneurship ecosystem.’’ Paris is perceived as a real innovation hub.

Fallaci Young works as Overseas Sales and Marketing Director at Amy Robotics and she defines Paris region as number one for robotics with remarkably high GDP in Europe.

ARVRtech team saw for real how this open global innovation network works and what opportunities for startups exists that can be applicable now. Obviously, startups and large corporations are provided with the infrastructure so that they can build meaningful partnerships and grow together.

According to Helene Tinti in charge of Open Innovation and Corporate partnerships at Paris Region Invest in 2017, B2B results were remarkable: 10 large corporations and 20 startups for IoT and Industries 4.0 were engaged in 120 B2B meetings.

In 2018 the event grew significantly: 26 companies from all over the world engaged with 20 large corporations.

The organization annually provides 35 world-class B2B events in San Francisco, Boston, Paris, Shanghai, Beijing.

Edouard Dolley, Business Developer from SARR IDF Innov emphasized that 150.000 people are involved in research in more than 1000 labs, while there are most competitive R&D tax incentives in Europe. Paris Region Innovation Booster can help you identify the relevant laboratory for your specific need.

For all the aforementioned reasons, this event belongs to the city you do not want to miss. Paris is one of the best tech hubs in Europe and it should be on the lookout of promising companies.

The beginning of February was a great opportunity for ARVRtech to share its expertise with vibrant tech community of Serbian entrepreneurs at Tech Breakfast, February edition in Belgrade.

We were invited by Heapspace colleagues to talk with fellow entrepreneurs about market opportunities in VR and our road map for next 6-12 months.

Tech Breakfast is a monthly event created by Heapspace organization with the aim that tech companies and startups present their innovative ideas in a relaxed atmosphere and over a breakfast.

This event provides an opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs, who are both in the audience and presenters, to obtain valuable feedback for their work, to connect with like-minded people, and to exchange know-how from a particular tech niche, and possibly to find business partners.

On behalf of ARVRtech Milena Milicevic presented how customized VR solutions helped our clients in 5 different industries.

Other presenters at Tech Breakfast #19 were: Slobodan Stević and Nenad Ognjanović on behalf of a gaming startup Altfuture (http://www.derailvalley.com/); Ivan Gligorijević who shared mBrainTrain’s experties (https://mbraintrain.com/), and Ljuba Youngblom who explained Why building a balanced startup team is the key to success (https://www.automatic.com/).

We were amazed by the energy and questions of tech-breakfast visitors at 8:00-10:00 o’ clock in the morning which was a fantastic way for us to start a new business day.

Have you ever thought that Virtual Reality can be successfully applied in big systems such as smart factories of the future (FoF)?

Since there are 31 million of persons in the EU employed in manufacturing and 80% of the EU’s exports are manufactured products, the sets of initiatives to create smart factories and infrastructure emerged.

Thus, within Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, the new contractual Public-Private Partnership (PPP) on Factories of the Future (FoF) was created for framework 2014-2020 followin successes of the FP7 Factories of the Future PPP. Certainly, Factories of the Future are the trend that goes beyond European continent and should be considered on all meridians.

Our company saw this phenomenon first-hand since it has developed solutions for clients that wanted to use VR with two purposes: to stimulate training of their workforce who would be capable of maintaining factories of the 21st century and to streamline factory processes. As a result, the number of errors in the daily operations will decrease, which will directly affect the productivity, quality assurance and the bottom line of the factory.

This example of developing VR content for smart factories turned out to be an excellent example for both the client (the factory of the future) and developer side (ARVRtech) in figuring out which metrics to measure (the ones of engineering excellence) while creating interactive, effective and educational Virtual Reality content.

Hence, by incorporating user interaction with the environment and content thanks to VR technology, the factory managed to achieve three goals in this particular scenario: to train more people within the short period of time in a cost-effective and interactive way; to enable people to learn about their workplace environment and machines without jeopardizing their life and safety as well as to help those very workers master using expensive machines before they try them out directly.

For the purposes of the client, we created three types of content: interactive 360 photo viewed with VR head mounted display, interactive 360 video viewed with VR head mounted display, and VR factory model which are all available on company’s YouTube channel. As mentioned earlier, all of these kinds of content were made with the purpose of training and maintenance.

The first type of content: the interractive 360 photo viewed with VR head mounted display guides people through different scenarios on the factory floor. Users could choose from two options: maintenance and training.

This use case is just an example what kinds of solutions can be created for smart factories. For instance, a user clicks on an information point that ‘‘hangs’’ in the factory on a blue flag with a white ‘‘i’’ when he opts for a maintenance part. Then, an array of short lessons open up such as: check quality of steel, replace bearings, check the overall status of the production hall, change the steel thickness.

Also, when the situation such as check the quality of steel is showed, the visitor sees several steps on the interface: use induction probe to test thickness, check the steel colour, etc. The user-friendly display of the information in a factory setting helps users to learn about procedures step-by-step and once they choose training options, plenty of questions open up in front of them. This time the visitor selects questions from white question marks on blue background scattered throughout the factory. In case the learner answers correctly, the solution is marked in green and for wrong answers, red colour is used.

VR factory model is very realistic and it helps visitors understand how different production lines inside factories are interconnected and which glitches in day-to-day operations should be avoided at all costs. Imagine how prepared and proud of themselves workers will feel, as they enter factories with this extra knowledge and are ready to contribute because they know what exactly is expected from them.

For all the reasons aforementioned, bringing to life smart factories with the help of Virtual Reality has become not only effortless, but also a prerequisite for all companies that care about their productivity, excellence with minimum of errors, profit, well-being and satisfaction of workers as well as expansion.

How do we know when we get too personal in our marketing efforts with potential clients? How can we know that we are reaching the prospects that are a good fit for us? The short answer is by trial and error.

In the age of data, engineers and marketers became the miners for the deepest human wants and needs. With adequate tools and analytic thinking they can anticipate next steps along the buyers’ journey even though their motivations and goals evolve and change constantly.

Fashion faces the similar marketing challenges like other industries — оne size does not fit all. We know that size rule every time we try out clothes we like under the beaming store lights. These items need to fit properly and elegantly. Otherwise we will leave them and not buy them. The same goes for marketing: it has to be intentional, engaging and upbeat.

Virtual and Augmented Reality are the next tools to generate the demand and we do so by interacting with our consumers in a meaningful way. Courtesy and human touch do wonders even for these advanced technologies and industry such as fashion that thrives on personalization.

We should not rush potential clients and follow them around the web with strange retargeting. Now their customer journey is at least five touch points before the actual conversion. And once they buy from us, we have to impress them over and over again.

Dynamics of AR and VR can help us target right people at the right time in the saturated market. All the data we collected and mentioned at the beginning of the text need to be assessed with both critical and creative eyes.

Below are three marketing promises which you can apply immediately with augmented and virtual reality solutions. Take your users down the catwalk and enhance the conversation and conversion about your brand.

Proximity-based advertising lets marketers target buyers on the basis of their location, but afterwards they can fine tune their messaging with extra information such as age, gender, heart rate, diet, preferred type of activity, and stress levels.

Tory Burch’s team improved the aesthetics of Fitbit; Apple had joined forces with Hermes while Opening Ceremony and Intel made a smart cut off bracelet. Bellabeat smart jewelry made an international revolution in enhancing health of female users and informing them about the parameters which matter to them.

In the future wearables and augmented reality will harness the principles of proximity advertising to a greater extent. Let’s say that you as a keen runner can receive targeted information about discounts and special offers once you have completed a successful run.

It starts like this: the brand warns users that there is a limited-time offer and they get on their tiptoes so as not to miss out on the opportunity. Fast reactions are fuelled when a hint of scarcity is given and such was the case when Topshop Unique partnered up with Inition for a complete Virtual Reality runway during live London Fashion Week.

Ladies who won the virtual reality competition with best posts on Twitter and Instagram were privileged to sit in the window of the Oxford Circus store while the extraordinary VR sets took them to the first row of Tate Modern.

This unique fashion show tapped into the desires of female buyers in three different ways: they were engaged into a lifetime memory to share with their friends; their experience went viral more easily thanks to the fact that they had already stood out on Topshop social media channels where they had won the competition and Topshop got portrayed as a brand at the forefront of customer engagement and innovation.

This is just one among manifold opportunities in the fashion world that offers exclusivity to early adopters who get exposure on social media and test out the innovative technologies. Yes, in case of Topshop – headsets and red carpet turned out to be a perfect match.

Have you ever gone for a test ride in a car? If you did and liked it, were you in two minds to purchase it? Or you actually realized that after this test drive such a car became to you like an asset you already own? Once you try out the premium experience you are less likely to come back to the previous variant.

The same logic applies to the personalized in-store experience that virtual and augmented reality can provide to the fans of fashion brands. Potential fans can try out amazing items of clothes, jewelry and accessories before they make a purchase.

The customer journey gets longer but because of increased engagement users are more likely to buy even more items in the end as it was difficult for them to decide on one or two things.

What is more, even though the purchase happens from the comfort of one’s home, augmented and virtual reality enable it to take place in some other location: an exclusive store in Paris or a high street shop in London.

Some augmented reality apps go even that far to shorten the time it takes to view different outfits and find the perfect size. The users swipe the card by hand, while the retailers store data such as clients’ size and measurements to ensure seamless experience every time.

Different layers typical in AR transform into extra layers of make-up and unusual hairstyles thanks to Modi Face app. This app was downloaded 50 million times and nearly 5 million users engage with it every month. Now I can figure out should I stick to my hairdo or make it more curly or with lovely highlights.

There are more options than ever to choose from in the world of fashion and very soon virtual and augmented reality are going to get deeply rooted in our decision habits. Then there are here to stay with us just like social media are at the moment.

Consumers are becoming more and more sophisticated and companies should think in an innovative manner not only how to engage them, but also how to surpass their expectations. Below are top benefits that augmented and virtual reality can bring to your business, especially in the field of marketing, in case you decide to implement it.

Marketers have been saying ,‘‘Content is the king’’ until quite recently, but now with VR and AR the users become both content consumers and content creators.

With a personalized headset and VR solutions, VR enthusiasts can travel to the place of their dreams, attend their favourite sport game or experience certain emotions in their body, mind and soul as if those events are happening not only in front of them, but also to them.

Similarly, augmented reality enables users to give a personal touch to the published or online content that they ‘‘augment’’ with the little help of customized smart phone apps and the markers which provide extra information.

For example, in the supermarket consumers learn as they screen with AR apps what prices are on sale; they may also get additional data about houses in their neighbourhood which they want to buy or rent and they test their knowledge about brands as they play the treasure hunt games.

We are adopting technology faster and faster. For instance, the telephone reached 50% of US households in several decades, beginning before 1900, whereas the cell phones achieved the 40% penetration rate in just 10 years.

It is estimated that virtual and augmented reality will cause the disruption in business models as they are the fourth major platform shift after PC, web and mobile devices.

The main benefit of VR and AR would be that it creates such value through personalized content and new business models.

CEOs and marketers who make decisions in the companies will learn through time how to use these technologies to the best advantage of their businesses. Digi-capital has identified that 80% of AR/VR revenue by 2020 will come from AR/VR hardware sales, eCommerce sales, adspend and mobile data/voice. If we translate these revenues into numbers VR would amount to $30B and AR to $90B, whereas $120B would be for AR/VR revenue combined by 2020.

In the world of publishing, the prints will not disappear, they just evolve thanks to VR and AR, creating a new storytelling medium and revenue stream. At the moment The Wall Street Journal and InStyle are several of many brands that intend to integrate VR.

The New York Times created a VR mobile app that tells stories in “immersive, 360-degree video experience.” In the VR film The Displaced they portrayed refugee children and sent 1.2 million Google Cardboard units. The unique storytelling and advanced technology built huge anticipation and empathy during the launch.

Although skeptics may emphasize that the major barrier to a wider adoption of virtual reality is that users need to have a gear and that big brands such as NYT had to send thousands of Google Cardboard pieces to get their app downloaded, it is just a matter of time when users will buy themselves headsets in order to access customized and captivating content, in the same way as smart phones became one of top gadgets.

Augmented reality in publishing has similar advantages over virtual reality as in other industries: no wearables are required to adopt, on smart phones all the content can be accessed, and the otherwise motionless content becomes live and boosted with extra information. If you scan brochures and catalogues with an AR app you may make a purchase and view styling tips.

Disney created an augmented reality app that projects characters from the colouring book while you are still working on them. Our company made the white label of Red Ridding Hood as we brought to life fairy tales for a showcase.

For example, Theatre in Paris together with Atos and the French start-up Optinvent created the augmented reality solution where theatre-goers were able to see subtitles simultaneously with the theatre show. This intersection of cultural events and technology is expected to spill over to other entertainment industries such as sport games or concerts, making them accessible to those who do not speak the language.

All the communication technology we had so far, from telegraph to the internet was an attempt to replicate the fundamental human interaction: connecting face-to-face.

Nowadays we substitute the lack of face-to-face interaction on the internet with many options (videos, photos, memes, gifs, texts) to create this wish-you-were–here effect.

Therefore, augmented and virtual reality may remove this last frontier of missing the physical contact with other person. What if the Google translate on steroids in the future become AR apps with advanced markers that translate simultaneously people’s conversations. Imagine people who are able to share a location, visit their dream destination and even understand each other in foreign languages thanks to VR.

At the back of the mind of marketers many emotions take place. Sometimes there is even a slight fear that their brand message will get ignored. ‘‘To which extent are people aware of our brand?’’ is one of the questions marketers keep asking themselves.

Virtual and augmented reality are the new channels for increasing brand awareness because they have the personalized characteristics of social media, yet people can experience content on a deeper level, from the first-person perspective.

Coca-Cola in Poland promoted the spirits of Christmas with the Oculus Rift as they users could become Santa Claus for a day. These new technologies are beneficial even for celebrity brands such as Michelle Obama or Sir Paul McCartney. The 360-video about healthy routine that the Verge created with Michelle Obama was identified as one of the best explainer videos marketers can learn from. Fans of Paul McCartney could experience being with him on the stage at Candlestick Park thanks to 360 video that Jaunt produced.

Even new brands can get ahead strong if they harness the power of AR and VR. When VR and AR apps make it possible and effortless for people to extra share their experience on social networks even more buzz is out there and friends-of-friends get interested in trying out the same.

Therefore, although virtual and augmented reality have not become mainstream in marketing labs world-wide, very soon these solutions will get their part of the marketing budget. They will appear with social media, the most cost-effective marketing tools when it comes to profiling target groups and providing to them exactly what they want.

As consumers interact with AR and VR solutions, marketers can measure this engagement and activate certain metrics over the other ones.

Parents interacted longer with the ad for children construction toy when it was presented to them in the format of AR (83 seconds vs. 12 seconds of traditional marketing). Because such solutions are tried out longer as the purchase decision tool, the likelihood that the item would be bought increases.

The ultimate purpose of any business is making sales. The ultimate purpose of any efficient and scalable business is to make sales to the satisfied customers who will come back again and again. Once potential users have been wowed by the immersive and interactive experience of VR and AR, their expectations from brands have increased. Brands that use these technologies creatively will set a new standard of surprise and appear in eyes of their consumers as the first choice.

How people make decisions and behave has been a source of intrigue for ages. Plato said, ‘‘Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.’’ When these three ingredients get mixed up successfully in marketing, the winning combination is created.

Because augmented and virtual reality solutions integrate analytics of the web and social media, one foundation for understanding user behavior has been already set up. In terms of consumer decision journey, by 2016 the web will influence more than half of all retail transactions, which equals to potential sales of almost $2 trillion.

Moreover, because AR and VR are so intuitive they integrate additional metrics that help us with user behavior. Consumers continue to immigrate to web and mobile channels with 65% of adults being active on social media according to Pew Research Center.

The numbers make it crowded for both marketers and consumers: Facebook and Instagram alone have 1 billion and 400 million users, Snapchat had around 100 million daily active users during the middle of 2015 and the micro-blogging network Twitter had 320 million users.

According to Marketing Dive’s top ten digital marketing trends in 2016 AR content will disseminate more easily than VR because it does not require the headset, but it ‘‘will start to mimic the functionality we see in virtual reality arena.’’

Yahoo’s VP of content strategy and solutions Andrew Snyder claims that it is crucial that ‘‘an ad experience can connect across devices’’. Certainly, brands that want to create the content that converts on AR and VR platforms would need to pay attention that their videos are engaging, compact, and functional across devices.

Never before us there has been a person like us, and this uniqueness can inspire us to legacy, greatness and contribution. Now that we live on a 7-billion strong planet, the questions and issues of energy efficiency get raised even stronger.

The European project Entropy identified different ways to tackle and solve the issues of energy efficiency thanks to the unity, know-how and determination of consortium partners.

Although consortium partners belong to diverse parts of Europe they understood how to implement better energy efficiency: by integrating science, data tracking, public lobbying as well as involvement of community.

Partners from seven countries in a consortium have gathered to deliver incredible results: University of Murcia (Spain), Intelen (Cyprus), UBITECH (Greece, Cyprus, Argentina), Hyperborea Srl (Italy), ELTRUN E-Business Research Center (Greece), HES-SO Valais-Wallis, Institute of Information Systems (France), PoloNavacchio S.p.A (Italy), DunavNET (Serbia) and STI Innsbruck (Austria). Since the project lasts for three years the project partners are working towards ENTROPY platform creation which will support sensor data processing, analysis and visualization, as well as gamification implementation, including the testing of the pilot project.

For the purpose of the pilot project, we created the Augmented Reality based Treasure Hunt serious game. Relying on the latest Augmented Reality technology, which became the world-wide hit after Pokemon Go, turned out to be a winning combination for engaging users.

There were two goals our augmented reality treasure hunt serious game fulfilled:

1. Educate and entertain users about different topics and aspects of energy efficiency through different types of treasure hunt questions and clues (AR based and multiple choice questions)

2. Motivate users, through personalized recommendations triggered by real time sensor measurements, to adopt desired behavioral patterns and habits and make actions required for the energy efficient operation of buildings (work environment)

The player progresses through the game in two ways:

Because of the gamification effects in AR Entropy Treasure Hunt the increased interaction with relevant users in social networks was made favourable, which could increase end users’ awareness about strategies to save energy and become more energy efficient in his or her lifestyle, while providing a set of energy efficient recommendations and motives.

As a result, the game enables you to have fun, learn about energy efficient community and become member of it, win the prizes and the challenge, adopt more energy efficient life style, as well as save energy and reduce costs.

In a nutshell, the main features of the game are:

What was the last time you had an exquisite party? And what was the last time it did not take you ages to organize such an event because it was pretty straightforward to mobilize those who cared to take part?

Thanks to benefits of Virtual and Augmented Reality the parties and even more serious, business-oriented events will get the extra spark of engagement and originality.

However, the challenge still remains how to get buy-in from people and to gather them in the first place.

In 2017, one of top priorities for innovative businesses remains how to stay relevant in the world of fast consumption of information and how to stay abreast of tech trends so as to adopt them and avoid passing fads.

What happens online on social media, sales funnels and points of conversions also happens in the world of conferences, parties and business meetings: on one hand there is the avalanche of information, and on the other hand human beings respond to such a multitude of stimulus with shorter attention span, inaction and paralysis how to choose what is good for them or to choose at all.

Virtual and Augmented Reality as you can see in our previous texts add the human touch in the world of constant noise for so many reasons.

When it comes to Virtual Reality Games such as Ski Jump and SteerVR that our employees tried at the recent New Year party we saw three main advantages of these technologies:

1. The experience was so immersive that some employees tried to win no matter what and came back for good to the next round over and over again.

2. The competitive spirit was even more amplified because of the scoreboard displayed publically and showed in real time thanks to a PC and video beam.

3. Prizes do motivate people to compete around winning which for some of them increases the factor of fun. Yet the prizes should not be labelled as valuable because most of the time they are not. Plus those who test your solutions are pretty smart. That is at least the kind of clients our company wishes for: smart, well-informed, enthusiastic about life and outgoing.

In 2017 you can expect that our creative solutions in VR, AR and IoT will reach another level simply because our team has gained momentum, we are opening to global markets and there is a solid traction thanks to previous beloved games, projects, branding campaigns and apps in what we can do for you and what we cannot.

Happy holidays and let us know what you would like to read more and how Virtual and Augmented Reality can help your business!

Last week we have returned from TFMA – Technology for Marketing Event in London where thousands of marketing decision-makers exchanged expertise and network.

Seismic changes in digital marketing landscape encourage the most competitive CEOs and marketing executives to be constantly on the edge of innovation.

At TFMA we discussed, among many topics, how to utilize the next moves of customers with big data and omni-channels of the future; how to capitalize on major sport and entertainment events and harness the transformation of publishing industry.

Given the fact that Virtual and Augmented Reality are the technologies which have started to gain significant traction and attention of audience over the last several years, here we outline four ways how you can implement Virtual Reality in your marketing plan.

Virtual and Augmented Reality are fields where knowledge is systematized on the go due to changing marketing landscape. Thanks to the influencers and clients working together, we could not help but agree with the VR and marketing tips of an entrepreneur Elena Titova while we provide our own experience in this synergy.

360-degree videos are perfect to present the standard information in the unusual way. Your potential users can experience the new storytelling thanks to a VR Headset they are wearing, while the image is moving.

Many companies start to integrate Virtual and Augmented Reality into their branding efforts and as a differentiating factor: from immersive interviews to tours, test drives, and other option which can be viewed, scaled, and differentiated via different platforms computer, phones, or VR headsets.

From our experience, audience reacted incredibly well to a 360-degree video for tourism purposes that we created with partner Homepage agency in order to provide the medieval experience of knighthood to wonderful visitors.

VR games are at the crossroads of gaming and film production as we knew it. The more hardware develops, the more realistic and seamless the content would feel for the audience.

The more capable your programming and creative team is, the more value your users can get out of the game. Of course, so many VR/AR games are based on earning points, getting through checkpoints, trying out different scenarios or routes.

These gaming mechanisms create environment for brands to get promoted inside the game. Products are collected, while even discounts and vouchers can be offered to the eager players that have reached certain level.

If you want to try out some of our VR and AR apps, go to Google Play Store or App Store.

Although more and more consumer electronic companies want to tap into the VR market and provide hardware, still Google Cardboard turns out to be a very cost-effective solution.

Google Cardboard can be distributed personally to visitors at events, trade shows or conferences and it is a wonderful way to increase direct engagement and to test people’s reactions on the spot.

As you can see during TFM in London, we branded Google cardboards with the same marketing theme of knighthood as in the 360-degree video we created.

This was the original and unexpected gift to the bravest visitors on our stand who tried out different apps, without feeling dizzy and who enquired about best options to integrate VR and AR in their business model.

Have an honest look at the packaging of your product or service. Can you get more original or your creative juices almost dried up?

If that is the case, it is high time you started thinking outside of the box, which is similar to how McDonald’s has revolutionized its packaging.

In Sweden Happy Goggles their endeavor to transform a Happy Meal box into VR cardboard glasses was immensely successful and showed that excellent branding is both about what is inside and outside.