Alexis Cox from Google: VR Content Doesn’t Need to Have Sky-High Production Values to Be Immersive and Compelling

Alexis Cox, Art, Copy & Code Team Innovation Lead at Google, wrote a post entitled: 3 best practices for creating engaging VR content, where she noted that “that Virtual Reality content doesn’t need to have sky-high production values to be immersive and compelling.” Cox explained that they conducted some qualitative studies to determine what makes people stick around in a virtual world. Using 13- to 44-year-old smartphone owners who watched at least one hour of video per week, they found out that for VR content to be compelling, at least one of the following three things must be done: Give your viewer an active role; open a closed door, and offer a new perspective. When you make the viewer the protagonist of the experience “he or she will venture willingly into your virtual world” she said. Using as an example the Fantastic Beasts VR experience on Daydream, she shows how it’s impossible to offer interactive VR functionality without interactive VR technology “so the tradeoff here is content accessibility.” Making viewer experience what they can’t also make VR engagement, as Urbex did with its Exploring the Forbidden Skyline for TV. “If your content can open a door previously locked to your viewer, whether due to cost, fear factor, or location, you can hold and maintain your viewer’s attention” Cox said. Finally, new perspective on familiar topics or content are just as compelling as the more exotic fare out there, Cox explained. “For brands, this means thinking beyond innovation in storyline. Additionally, think about innovation in point-of-view.”