Laura Mingail, Director, Marketing & Business Development, Entertainment One, discussed how using virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) can unlock consumer engagement and sales.
The use of VR and AR technologies to create new forms of consumer experiences is rapidly evolving, as access to VR and AR increases in at-home and out-of-home environments. VR allows a person to be fully immersed into a setting by putting a headset on. There are now opportunities to play at home or in a new age arcade. There is cinematic VR, which is like watching a movie from within the movie. There is live sports streaming, which can allow you to watch the game from the sidelines. Finally, there are also games.
The VR landscape is changing. By 2022, it is estimated there will be 37 million units purchased. Right now there is not a lot of penetration at home. VR arcade revenue is expected to increase from 200 million in 2018 to 1.6 billion dollars by 2022.
The AR landscape is also changing. Unlike VR, AR takes a real setting and adds digital elements to it. Currently there are two options, a mobile version, which has gain popularity due to Pokemon Go. The other options is a headset.
Mingail asked if these tools can be useful in the lottery industry. “What if all lottery players were guaranteed to experience something incredible? Like the world of their dreams?”
Another idea Mingail pointed out was that instead of scratching a ticket, an instant ticket could unlock a game that can be played on a VR headset. To discover if someone was a winner, they would have to beat a mini-game.
For AR, what if walking around town would let people discover lottery “loot boxes,” which, when opened, would have a small prize in them