Dear Ogling,

You’re right – virtual reality is one of the most cutting-edge technologies we can offer our clients. However, it’s important to hold VR to the same standards as you do any other tactic, be it humble banner ads or eDetails or KOL videos on a product website – does it reinforce the brand message? Does it move the needle in terms of sales?

Here are a few ways to use VR technology to promote awareness of your brand in a totally unique way:

• Build Empathy: If your product treats a condition with significant sensory effects, such as Parkinson’s or chronic migraines, you can use VR at conferences to let clinicians “feel” what it’s like to actually be a patient with that condition—feel their hands shake, see their vision become distorted as a migraine aura takes hold. Clinicians can get so caught up in the science of various diseases, so distracted by the seemingly endless paperwork demanded by insurance companies, that it’s sometimes easy for them to lose sight of why they became doctors in the first place. VR can help them get back in touch with that altruism and empathy in a truly impactful way. Brand messages then reach a much more engaged target.
• Facilitate Training: Is your product a medical device, a complex stent, for example? Let clinicians experience—without fear of failure—how it feels to use the device, and the audience for your brand message will be all ears.
• Bring Science to Life: Mechanism of Action animations are nothing new, but to experience “being” in the bloodstream, penetrate a cell wall to deliver healing medicine—that type of immersive MOA has real punch. At a recent American College of Cardiology annual meeting, Boehringer Ingelheim offered attendees a VR experience exploring the mechanism-of-action behind a new pharmaceutical agent. The MOA demo, developed by VR experts Confideo Labs, drew long lines at the BI booth.

At Xavier Creative House, we’ve recently entered into a partnership with Confideo Labs to enhance our VR offerings. Founder Mike Marett says, “The combination of episodic learning and empathetic engagement achieved with VR is really unparalleled. The immersiveness of consuming media in a goggle also deprives other senses and keeps individuals fully focused on the visuals and the audio.”

If the message is powerful, then VR can be a powerful medium through which to deliver it.