Humans as a species have a primitive urge to communicate, to tell stories. To that end we developed language and writing, and as time went to we refined the tools available to us to the extent that today a sports broadcast or a new movie is watched by hundreds of millions of people and you as an ordinary viewer can send out a tweet that has the potential audience of a similar number of people.

Virtual reality, still in nascent stages, does not have that reach yet, but its effects are already being felt in every domain, be it entertainment, sports, manufacturing, medical among countless others. Metaverse is the biggest buzzword right now.

As noted before, VR has been used in training, manufacturing and research in various industries for decades now, and the strength of applications is improving with every passing year.

In the past few years, VR, AR and 360 degree media have also entered the field of communication and content in a big way.

360 videos have been used in a variety of ways by creators to put their message across. There have been documentaries, BTS videos, fiction shorts, music videos, cultural experiences and everything in between.

At Raasta, we have made 360 degree video experiences for many different use cases.

For HUL, we made a series of videos that takes a viewer through the entire life cycle of their Ayush line of products right from the raw material stage to the end product on supermarket shelves.

For MPEDA, we made a video on shrimp farming which was shot across states and across many different farms and shrimp facilities.

Experiencing a 360 video on a headset is an experience like no other and these videos were very well appreciated.

In VR, we have made training modules and architectural VR apps among many others.

When it comes to AR, we made a phone app for Nestle, which if you scan the code on the bottle, it takes you to a menu on the app with a video and many other options.

Globally too, agencies have been finding innovative ways to include VR, AR and 360 media in their campaigns.

IKEA launched an app that allowed users to place furniture in their house using AR to see how it looked.

American express launched a campaign where a viewer could play tennis against Maria Sharapova in VR.

Virtual events have become common in organizations now, as have 360 degree recording or streaming of big events.

Its quite possible that going forward VR will play a key role in most corporate campaigns, as it will in most aspects of life in general.

Written by Manish Bhanushali