Advertisement can be potentially annoying for most internet users, this is not a new issue at all and has in fact, been addressed by numerous marketing companies over the last few years. Marketing agencies’ main goal is to engage people’s attention with entertaining and ingenious ads; ever since the introduction to video advertisements, there hasn’t been any new breakthrough in the advertising industry to fully immerse consumers into ads. Fortunately, Google just announced a new way in which marketing agencies will be able to interact with consumers. Today, the internet giant is introducing 360-degree video ads on YouTube, one of the world’s most popular video platforms. This comes as the first true innovation that the marketing world has seen since video ads, as it takes advantage of the relatively new technology that is 360-degree video recording.
360-degree video has been available for a while now, but beginning today marketing agencies will be able to engage with their viewers in a completely new way that has never been possible before. Advertising has just become a whole lot more immersive as users will be able to deliver rich experiences that target audiences in a thoroughly personal way, allowing viewers to easily shift their point of view by simply moving their phones around or by dragging their mouse to see different parts of the video. Google is hoping that the newly released 360-degree video ads are appealing enough for consumers to spend more time watching advertisements instead of just waiting to click or tap the “skip ad” button. This innovative new way to deliver ads, comes a short time after Google gave YouTube users the ability to upload 360 videos into YouTube, as numerous major brands, such as Nike and Coca-Cola, quickly began creating brand new videos to engross their possible customers” engagement with the brand.
Today, the world’s first 360-degree video ad running in TrueView ads, comes from Bud Light in the United States and features three different events from “Whatever, USA”, a state made up by Bud Light by “taking over” the Catalina Island. The first 360-degree video ad puts the viewer in the middle of the action, which includes an astounding performance by Diplo, the welcome parade, and the “Turn of An Era” 1920’s themed party.
There is no doubt that 360-degree video advertising will function as a way to closely engage with consumers and will continue to evolve as time goes on. One of the main functions this type of advertising could possibly have is to let the viewer interact directly with the video, by instructing him or her to see to a specific direction. This new announcement also shows the strong commitment that Google has over 360-degree videos and VR, which has just recently began to be more adopted by the general public.