Whether it’s in a Facebook newsfeed or on a trade show floor, 360-degree videos have been increasing in numbers over the past two years. Tourism boards and convention bureaus see potential in these videos, but are still learning how to best present them to travelers.
Since YouTube and Facebook began letting users upload 360-degree videos in 2015, with Facebook adding such videos on mobile last year, brands have more channels to push 360-videos to travelers for trip-planning and inspiration.
Still, some brands aren’t convinced that travelers have enough understanding of how to view 360-videos on their own and are experimenting with virtual reality headsets to showcase these videos at consumer and travel industry events.
That’s the view of Gathan Borden, vice president of marketing at VisitLex, the visitor and convention bureau for Lexington, Kentucky, which released its first 360-degree marketing video on YouTube in March. Borden feels that watching 360-degree videos on desktop or a mobile device could cause distractions for travelers. “Once you put these videos on a platform like Facebook or YouTube you have to use the mouse to click around to see different perspectives,” he said. “People don’t really feel immersed in the experience and that’s why we use Samsung Gear VR headsets.”
VisitLex debuted its “Horses” video (watch below) at a conference for meeting planners in February that was created for both consumers and meeting planners. “It used to be that we were trying to show everyone everything in content marketing videos,” said Borden. “Now we’re trying to be more strategic to talk to you strictly about this horse message or this bourbon message, for example.”
The CVB’s next video about the city’s convention center, for example, only highlights a few rooms of the venue. “Meeting planners can explore the rooms at their own pace and we only want to show them what they need to see to help them make their decisions.”
Destination British Columbia has been producing virtual reality and 360-degree videos since 2014 and said that events remain the vehicles for getting eyeballs to watch the videos but they’re also able to reach more travelers at home on their own devices in 2017. “The cost of 360 has also dropped significantly in last three years,” said Janice Fraser, managing editor of Destination British Columbia. “In the past, we’d usually take 15 VR headsets and help people put them on at events. Now we’ll purchase hundreds ofGoogle Cardboard headsets and give one to everyone at a conference and give them instructions to download a 360 video.”
As more travelers own headsets and devices capable of playing a 360-degree video, Fraser said the tourism board wants travelers to find its 360-degree videos on platforms such as Facebook and YouTube and the content hub on its website. The tourism board is also running some of its 360-degree videos as ads on certain sites using Omnivirt.
,
,
Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau: Tokyo’s Sendai video highlights local life in the city and puts locals and tourists front and center in many of the scenes. While the lights in each scene are appealing to viewers, the CVB doesn’t make clear what viewers are actually looking at. These videos have also resonated with travelers — most of the CVB’s 360-degree videos have more than half a million views and that only accounts for YouTube.
,
,
Destination British Columbia: “The Winter Within” video is a great example of surprising travelers with 360-degree video. During some scenes, travelers need to toggle the arrows to see the action they’re intended to see which could involve moving up, down, left or right. Though the video gives travelers a solid perspective of what it’s like to ski at Whistler Blackcomb the video is a bit long (3:37). The two skiers in the video, for example, spend about 15 seconds holding a bird that slows down the action.
,
Source: Skift