YuMe, global digital agency, Isobar; immersive entertainment studio, RLTY CHK; and media analytics platform RetinadVR, have partnered up on a new study today looking at virtual reality (VR) in-game advertising, the results of which have been released today.
The study compared consumer responses to three forms of VR advertising — a pre-roll video ad, brand logos present in-game and 3D branded objects inserted into interactive gameplay.
54 participants based in San Francisco, California were recruited to play “Kiss or Kill,” an immersive VR game show created by RLTY CHK. Participants were monitored during game-play by Isobar to collect key emotional response data. Immediately after the game, and again 24 hours later, participants were surveyed by YuMe to measure ad recall and understand consumer response to the various forms of VR advertising they were exposed to. RetinadVR audited and provided input to the survey methodology, study execution, and the data analysis.
The results showed that, overall, 70 percent of participants found VR advertising to be highly memorable across all ad formats. With the highest levels of brand recall occurring from the pre-roll video ad, which achieved 90% aided recall on the day the study was conducted.
“We believe our study indicates that VR advertising is highly memorable in any format. It’s encouraging to see that a video ad, the most familiar and high-performing digital format, also delivers the highest rate of ad recall in the VR world,” said Mireya Arteaga, Research Lead, YuMe in a statement. “We believe immersive advertising is on the rise. Its ability to deliver a compelling branded-content message that is interactive, engaging and offers consumers the ability to own their ad experience is very attractive to today’s advertisers.”
“By combining our immersive VR game show format with strategically-placed ads, both players and brands can win,” said Nick Robinson, CEO, RLTY CHK. “VR enables marketers and developers to reimagine brand experiences, and the positive recall metrics show how effective VR can be in engaging audiences.”
As companies seek to make VR more profitable, finding ways of making ads suitable for VR users and virtual environments is becoming evermore important with several firms exploring the possibilities. These include: Omnivert, Immersv, Verve and Vertebrae to name a few.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of YuMe, reporting back with any further updates.