Lately, the buzz surrounding virtual reality seems to be growing stronger nearly every day. What’s more, companies are starting to turn that buzz into tangible results.

The New York Times is one example of a business taking the VR bull by the horns. I was lucky to be in the audience at the #ThinkContent summit and listened to one of the sessions titled “The VR Landscape,” hosted by Adam Aston, VP and Editorial Director of T Brand Studio at the New York Times. But Aston was hardly the only speaker who clearly had VR on the brain — in nearly every session during the full-day summit, VR got a shoutout.

It’s no secret why — according to Goldman Sachs, VR is set to become an $80 billion market by 2025. For reference, that’s the size of the desktop PC market now.

When it comes to marketing, VR holds remarkable possibilities. Research shows that audiences retain VR experiences at a remarkable rate, with an 80% retention rate one year after the experience, compared to 20% retention with reading.

Considering the size of the market and the possibilities for reaching and influencing an audience, it’s only a matter of time before more and more marketers start diving into VR. So if you’re one of the many marketers with VR dreams dancing in your head, keep reading for some tips, tricks, and considerations from Aston.

VR isn’t actually new

The Virtual Reality Society has an interesting timeline of the developments in VR technology, including a synopsis of the failures of two of VR ancestors — the Sega Genesis console (‘93) and the Nintendo Virtual Boy (‘95). Both Sega and Nintendo were a bit ahead of the times and, unfortunately, technology wasn’t quite caught up yet. The Sega wasn’t even released due to technical difficulties and the Virtual Boy, although released in Japan in North America, was a massive commercial failure due to all experiences being only in 2 colors (red and black) and lack of software support.

But, yes, this time is different. Virtual reality is poised to become mainstream in the 21st century thanks to the rise of smartphones with high-density displays and the expanding capabilities of 3D graphics — plus major investment from the world’s largest companies (Facebook’s $2 billion acquisition of modern VR pioneer Oculus Rift comes to mind).

VR has unique challenges

To put it simply: You can’t retrofit an idea to work in VR. If VR isn’t the best way to tell the story, you can’t force it. There are so many unique characteristics of VR that you must think about when deciding how to tell a story, including:

• Inability to zoom with VR

• If you have too many voices in the background, the experience becomes sensory overload

• Quick cuts make people (literally) sick

   

Not to mention the high cost to producing VR videos — just the camera alone costs high-four to low-five figures, and this doesn’t include the cost of paying a service to stitch the shots together.

Additionally, when it comes to the story you’re looking to tell with VR, there can be a temptation to go all-in on visuals (which are incredible!). But thinking that just visuals will carry the story is a big miss – without a narrative, the audience loses interest very quickly. Think about it: We don’t ask people to turn off all other channels and devices and tune into an experience quite like with virtual reality.

In his session at #ThinkContent, Aston stressed the responsibility that early adopters have when it comes to bringing VR experiences mainstream. His words? “Don’t innovate for innovation’s sake.”