Virtual Reality Gaining Momentum, but Content Lags on Technology

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Cardboard is a virtual reality headset that works with a smartphone.

1 SECTIONS CAREERS CLASSIFIEDS SUBSCRIBE LOG IN MEDIA MEMO PAD MEDIA FEATURES FILM / TV ADVERTISING PRINT MARKETING MARKETING PUBLISHING wwd media news digital facebook twitter February 10, 2016 Virtual Reality Gaining Momentum, but Content Lags on Technology By Maghan McDowell JUST IN JEREMY SCOTT-WRAPPED LEXUSES HIT MANHATTAN STREETS THURSDAY LATEST ISSUE VIEW/ DOWNLOAD MORE Google Cardboard is a virtual reality headset that works with a smartphone. Courtesy Photo A A A+ PRINT LATEST ARTICLES When Wall Street analysts had a chance to pepper the top brass at Facebook, Apple and Google with questions on earnings conference calls last week, they asked repeatedly about just how immersive digital life might become. Any high-level thoughts on the virtual reality theme? asked analyst Gene Munster of Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook. Do you think this is more of a geeky niche or something that could go LATESTMEDIA ARTICLES

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2 Twitter s New Feature Highlights Best Tweets First Polyvore Adds Men s Category Joyus Partners With The Limited on Careerminded Content MORE ARTICLES BY Maghan McDowell the power of Oculus in-store and in person? mainstream? Cook said that he didn t consider virtual reality just a niche. It s really cool and has some interesting applications, he said. Some analysts predict that one day, Apple will debut a mixed-reality headset that would ultimately replace the iphone. Later, analyst Ben Schachter asked Facebook s Mark Zuckerberg about his company s VR effort: How are you going to work with retailers to show consumers ADVERTISING Coco Rocha Featured in Nic + Zoe s Spring Campaign ADVERTISING Hollister Partners With Snapchat on Selfies Using Animated Lens Twitter s New Feature Highlights Best Tweets First MEMO PAD Amazon Fashion Taps Chiara Ferragni as European Ambassador, Face of Spring Campaign Virtual reality which often uses a headset to simulate reality with sights and sounds has been on the collective radar for some time, and in an age when fashion is being democratized and multimedia content is surging, the two seem a natural fit. Even though the world of gaming is getting a lot of VR attention, Google s Aaron Luber, who leads partnerships and business development for Google s VR and 360 videos on YouTube, said that fashion is certainly one of those things that we have gravitated to. You can draw a lot of parallels for things that would be exciting. In the short term, Luber said the most immediate and obvious application in the fashion world would be, for example, letting fans experience a 360-degree fashion show. Using a 360 camera (Google worked with GoPro to create a 360-degree, 3-D camera called Odyssey), the video could be uploaded to YouTube and viewed using Cardboard, which is a relatively simple and inexpensive virtual-reality headset that works with a smartphone. In the past couple years, a handful of retail brands and media companies have set their sights on making VR a reality: Topshop shared a live-stream of its runway show; Elle and InStyle created virtual reality experiences of a photoshoot; Westfield brought virtual reality to a mall in London; Toms created a video that took consumers along on a trip to Peru, and Richard Chais is working on a virtual reality documentary. Labels such as Dior and Rebecca Minkoff have customized the actual VR hardware. But with VR seeping into popular conscience, why isn t it more visible? According to Luber, it s about content. What a brand would need, he said, is Cardboard, a way to distribute it and content. The tech exists, he said, but it s the implementation that is lagging a bit behind. They Are Wearing: 080 Barcelona They Are Wearing: Copenhagen Fashion Week They Are Wearing: New York Fashion Week Men s Right now, what we are seeing is an amazing explosion in tech, but the biggest challenge is the content, Luber said. The tech is moving at a rapid pace, but people are still trying to understand what people want to watch. The tech has truly done amazing things in the past months, but the content has to push itself. There s also the issue of technical know-how. Although the technology exists, the MOSTPOPULARCOMMENTED MORE STREET

adoption process can be slower for those who are unfamiliar with it. And it s not always easy (or worth it) to make an elaborate multimedia experience that only a few customers can easily access.

3 adoption process can be slower for those who are unfamiliar with it. And it s not always easy (or worth it) to make an elaborate multimedia experience that only a few customers can easily access. The VR experiences that Toms, Tommy Hilfiger and Topshop created, for example, were only viewable in retail stores. Part of our job is educating the fashion world about what you can do in VR, said Jess Engel, executive produce at Virtualize, a VR content agency. Virtualize just created a VR project with stylist Victoria Bartlett, creative director Ruvan Wijesooriya and production by The Endless Collective. You can go backstage at an editorial; you can do a live-action, fully immersive lookbook there really isn t a lot of it going on right now, Engel said. The tech is there, but it s still expensive to create, she said. In VR, the postproduction software is still being developed and that s where it gets expensive. Meet SWMRS, Hedi Slimane s New Boy Band Crush Birgitte Hjort Sørensen Playss Warhol s Muse in HBO s Vinyl Cos Bar Hires Net-a-porter s David Olsen as CEO Waris Ahluwalia Denied Entry Aboard Aeroméxico Flight Because of Turban Think Tank: Ralph Lauren, Superboss LATESTPUBLICATIONS Plus, she said, the ecosystem isn t fully built out yet. Fashion brands are starting to engage with VR, but most people still don t own headsets, so how will people experience it? Facebook bought Oculus Rift in 2014, and Zuckerberg has often talked about his interest in expanding what Facebook can offer using VR. The reason why we re interested in this as a social company is that we think that this is going to be a new way that people interact, Zuckerberg said. That s going to be a big area of investment for us. And it is ultimately, I think, going to change the way that we communicate and live and work in addition to how we play games. But I think we re off to a good start. WWD 02/10/2016 READ NOW DOWNLOAD THE PDF WWD 02/03/2016 READ NOW DOWNLOAD THE PDF Google is rumored to be working on a more extensive headset, but Luber declined to comment on that. VIEW ALL PUBLICATIONS For now, he said, These brands have to try new ways to demonstrate new immersive ways they re not looking to make [customers] purchase a new pair of pants in VR. That is much further out, but that probably will happen in the future. For now, the message seems to be to wait and see what brands will do, what customers want to watch and what hardware will be most agreeably adopted. As Google s ceo Sundar Pichai told investors, It s still incredibly early innings for virtual reality as a platform, and Cardboard is just the first step. Share this article Tweet this article Comment Now ADD A COMMENT Sign in using your Facebook or Twitter account, or simply type your comment below as a guest by entering your and name. Your address will not be shared. Please note that WWD reserves the right to remove profane, distasteful or otherwise inappropriate language.

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