Virtual reality (VR) technology is finally becoming mainstream. With the use of CGI and 360 videos you can now experience traveling to the top of Mount Everest, touring a football stadium, interacting with dinosaurs, designing with a Tilt brush, playing games, and more all through a headset! For years, gamers and marketers have craved the immersive experience that VR can provide. First, we saw the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive launch, but the price tag kept them out of reach.

October 20, 2016 [update] - The world of marketing is on the event horizon of some amazing changes with Virtual Reality. With VR also dawns a new age of Augmented Reality (AR) products.

These new mediums will undoubtedly propel experiential marketing to a bold new level, but we need to know what VR and AR can do and how a brand can use these immersive and unique experiences to facilitate a deeper connection with customers.

Blippar is a company that helps brands to create augmented reality experiences on mobile devices. Their app allows you to use your phone’s camera to scan items in the world around you, and it reveals various surprises like games, animations, and deals.

For the 2016 Lunar New Year, Blippar developed custom ‘ang paos’ for consumers to give to friends and family members. When the ‘ang paos’ are scanned using the Blippar app, they reveal a lion dance animation and a fortune depending on your year of birth.

As virtual reality is currently becoming one of the most important buzzwords in the marketing industry, augmented reality is also rising. Augmented reality enhances our experience of reality by inserting virtual animations into consumers’ view of the real world. The experience can be delivered with a headset or a smart device. Such technology opens up great opportunities for marketers to create unique brand experiences that interact with users’ real world.