Government organizations have historically not been early adopters of much hyped technology like virtual reality. Bureaucratic red tape, tight budgets, and a general resistance to change are just a few of the many reasons this has been the case. But surprisingly, as VR has gone more mainstream over the last 18 months, governmental divisions from the local to federal level have been some of the more innovative users of the technology. How has the technology captured the attention of government workers and how are they deploying it for effective use?

To answer the first question, you have to understand two of the most underappreciated facets of Virtual Reality: it can save organizations money and it’s relatively easy to distribute. In terms of cost savings, creating and distributing a virtual reality app is no more expensive than a traditional video. Something like new employee training thus can save government divisions on travel, live trainer hours, etc. And with VR accessible on just about every smartphone, and the prevalence of low cost iOS/Android headsets like Google Cardboard, getting VR out to employees or outside audiences is simple.

Let’s dig a little deeper into specific use cases where governments have deployed VR.

VR for Training

Authoring training apps has rapidly become one of the most popular use cases for our web-based VR app creation software. One division of the federal government that uses InstaVR-created apps, for instance, has new employees first immersed virtually in their respective field location, before they ever step foot in the actual environment. Part of the reason is practical — VR can make you more comfortable and acclimated to a new location, so their employees are better prepared for actual on-site training.

But the financial reasons government organizations use VR for training are undeniable. This particular organization mails up to 100 Gear VR headsets and mobile phones to a given field office. Despite the costs associated with the hardware, there’s considerable cost savings by virtually transporting employees versus doing the same in real life. And much of the training videos they use are evergreen, and can be used again and again at offices throughout the United States. The total cost of VR training is small compared with overall training budgets, and any time saved or improvement in employee performance has immense value.

VR is also a good fit specifically for training employees in dangerous jobs. For cities and towns, this could include occupations like firefighters, cops, and EMTs. Firefighters, for example, can use a Vive application with a hand controller meant to specifically simulate a fire hose. All of these high pressure municipal jobs require a lot of training before facing real circumstances, and nothing simulates reality as good as VR.

(image courtesy of Inlet Shores Group)

VR for Recruiting Employees

In a relatively strong labor market, job recruiters have to get creative. What better way to show off the day-to-day life of an employee than through an immersive VR experience? The Navy, for example, has extensively used virtual reality as a recruitment tool. This isn’t a surprise, as the target audience of Navy recruits has been raised on video games and video-based tools like YouTube and Snapchat. Creating VR experiences they show out of a custom built trailer called The Nimitz, the Navy has seen a substantial uptick in potential recruits generated by those that don the VR headsets. VR beats written materials pretty handily, it’s safe to say.

(image courtesy of Left of Creative)

VR for Education

It’s no exaggeration to say that public schools are perpetually fighting an uphill battle to get funding for technology. One of the most affordable tech enhancements though has been VR in Education. Students can get an immersive, engaging, virtual tour of a faraway place, without having to leave the classroom. Google’s Expeditions, for example, allows students to learn history through VR experiences.

Tools like our InstaVR platform also empower teachers to make their own virtual field trips for students. With the declining costs of 360 cameras, and the ubiquity of Google Cardboard (and similar) headsets, teachers can distribute VR field trips of their own making to students who have iOS/Android smartphones. VR truly does make learning more dynamic.

(image courtesy of German University in Cairo)

VR for Marketing Cities/States/Airports

Convention & Visitor Bureaus occupy a unique position within governments in that they’re required to spend money to make money. Essentially, they’re investing in different marketing techniques to highlight the qualities of their city or state. And VR has yielded significant ROI for many marketers. Virtual Reality helps organizations make memorable experiences that cut through the marketing clutter of modern life.

Atlanta, for instance, created ATL360 as a virtual reality experience to advertise the city to conference and event planners. The VR application utilizes hotspots to feature specific Atlanta neighborhoods, restaurants, hotels, and more. And Atlanta is not alone. One of our clients at InstaVR, Qatar Civil Aviation Authority, designed a 360 video tour of the Hamad International Airport to acclimate new visitors to all the amenities offered there. Even the White House put together a very high quality VR tour last year for distribution on the Oculus Rift.

Conclusion

Multiple divisions of government can take advantage of virtual reality today. Be it to train employees to do dangerous jobs, recruit new employees, educate students, or recruit businesses to hold conferences — there’s no shortages of ways VR can be incorporated into government activities. Not only is VR an exciting technology for government organizations to adopt, it also has practical value for saving money. If you work for the government in appropriate capacity, don’t be afraid to introduce VR to your division. It’s much simpler and more affordable to make than you might expect.

Andrew Woodberry is the Head of Sales & Marketing at InstaVR (http://www.instavr.co), a web-based platform for authoring, publishing, and analyzing 360-degree VR content. Since its launch in December 2015, InstaVR has had over 10,000 people and companies sign up to more quickly and easily publish VR apps across the major platforms.

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Is Virtual Reality a disruptive technology or all hype? This is the question that launched a thousand think pieces, yet even the most jaded VR cynic must admit that something feels different about this iteration of the VR boom.

Perhaps it’s the pervasiveness of the technology in popular media — it played a key plot point in the past season of HBO’s “Silicon Valley,” it was featured in Samsung’s Super Bowl commercial, and it was marketed as a way to enjoy Coachella from the comfort (and cleanliness!) of your own home. Or perhaps it’s the rosy financial outlook offered by respected research firms – Goldman Sachs predicts AR/VR will be an $80 billion industry by 2025 and IDC forecasts 100 million AR/VR headsets will be sold in 2021, a 10 times increase over last year’s sales. Maybe it’s that anyone can access and create VR easily with recent advances, like 360-degree cameras and authoring/publishing platforms.

See also: 5 effective and smart ways to do VR marketing today

One indisputable fact is that growth in the industry is dependent on content. And not just any content, but content that leverages the inherent benefits of 360-degree immersion, and demands to be seen and heard. If there’s one thing that will stop VR growth in its tracks, its lack of quality experiences to download, stream, or purchase.

Enter the marketers

The same marketers currently creating 30-second TV ads will play a major role in shaping VR. Though the term “branded experience” gets thrown around often in marketing and advertising conference rooms, rarely does it find a better fit than VR — Lionsgate’s VR trailer for their new iteration of Blair Witch, for example, captured the attention of its audience. The heightened emotional response of horror movies dovetails nicely with the excitement of immersion in an unfamiliar world.

For a marketer new to VR, there is some expected trepidation. What kind of new equipment will I need to buy? Will I need to learn how to code or outsource to expensive engineers for the end deliverable? How will I pitch this new technology to clients?

The reality is that creating VR is not difficult. With the prevalence of 360-degree cameras on the market, and web-based software like the InstaVR platform, any marketer with an internet connection can generate VR content today. Everything can be done in-house, no outsourcing or coding required. As for client acquisition, VR’s applicability traverses many different types of businesses. Almost all existing clients will have experienced VR at some point, so the pitch really comes down to how and when to leverage the technology.

Left of Creative, a digital agency that has been doing multimedia productions for over 20 years, created an immersive 360-degree video tour for the U.S. Navy supercarrier U.S.S. Carl Vinson to showcase a VR app during this year’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition — the largest maritime exposition in the United States. Visitors to the exposition got an inside look at the ship in action via Samsung Gear VR headsets. The capture and authoring for the VR application was done primarily using a Gear 360 camera, a laptop, and an authoring platform, proving just how easy it is for marketers to adapt to VR.

New marketing revenue streams

Just as social media has created a new revenue stream for many marketing agencies, so too has virtual reality. Smaller VR-specific agencies are forming, while larger marketing firms are dedicating whole groups to the emerging technology. And with VR not quite reaching mainstream status yet, there’s a novelty and excitement around virtual reality that is palpable in clients. In a world of 600 TV channels and seemingly millions of YouTube stars, creating a shareable, unique, exceptional VR experience has a lot of value in cutting through the noise.

As with traditional web media, there are ad networks dedicated solely to generating traffic to VR experiences and monetizing them. For metrics-driven marketers, you can tie your VR media to Google Analytics to measure engagement, and heat map overlays can show you what areas of your VR experience are most popular. You can even turn a VR application into a direct response vehicle – with APIs able to pull up a phone number to call at the conclusion of a mobile VR app.

VR is also a global phenomenon, allowing marketers to reach a geographically wide audience. If anything, North America lags behind portions of the developed world in terms of VR adoption. While not a totally greenfield opportunity, anyone getting into VR now still has a large addressable market that is still materializing. The Google daydream headset, for example, is slated to be compatible with over 10 million phones shipped this year.

As VR continues to disrupt hiring and training and education, marketing professionals should strongly consider investing in becoming VR-ready. If they’re not actively pitching the technology to their clients, their clients will soon be coming to them asking about it. And if the numbers from Goldman Sachs and IDC are to believed, AR/VR headsets will become fairly ubiquitous in the next decade. The question will then become — which marketers are creating the best VR content and helping their clients stand out?

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