Adobe is showing off a project at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona this week concerning advertising in virtual reality (VR). At the moment it is only a prototype from Adobe’s research labs and involves watching 2-D videos theatre-style.
Presently the adverts work thus: If you are watching a video through a virtual theatre such as the ones provided by Netflix and Hulu, the system will interrupt viewings of the video, similar to traditional TV adverts, but can also show additional information to either side or above the user, such as further information on the product, access to coupons or even the opportunity to tweet from within the VR world.
Adobe Primetime Director of Product Management Campbell Foster said in an interview with Variety; “With 360, it’s not clear what content is going to look like beyond gaming. For entertainment, VR is a lot more promising than AR.”
Since the product is still in early stages, it’s currently focused on the theatre-style viewing, and is optimised for use with mobile VR platforms. Mr. Foster also said that it was possible that VR adverts could eventually take advantage of the features currently used in Adobe’s traditional advertising, such as detailed analytics and consumer targeting.
Mr. Foster also suggested that when the ad unit was developed further, it might be possible to ‘beam’ the user out of the theatre setting and place them somewhere else for the duration of the advert, and then return them when the advert was complete.
For further news on Adobe’s VR projects, it will be on VRFocus.