By Adam Wakefield

In March 2014, the tech world was taken by surprise when Facebook bought VR gaming start-up Oculus, the company behind the Rift headset, for $2-billion. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, at the time, that mobile was the platform of today, but the company was now getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow.

Fast forward just over two years to 2016 and, according to Lategan, this year will see the mass-market introduction of VR devices in South Africa. This is signified, according to Lategan, by the first consumer-grade high end VR headsets that are hitting local shelves.

“Devices like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are available to buy today - but come at a hefty price tag and have been mired with early production issues. These platforms will likely remain in the domain of early adopters and tech enthusiasts for the time being as the barrier to entry is still quite high,” he says.

However, Sony’s Playstation will also be releasing its console based entry, the PSVR, into the market later this year, Lategan says it is favoured to be the headset of choice for the gaming community.

“This is due to its massive existing install base and much lower price point than the other premium options. Make no mistake, it’s the gaming community who will be the tip of the spear when it comes to driving mainstream high-end VR adoption,” he says.

Beyond the gaming community, what will see VR shed its niche status will be the proliferation of mobile VR, with the likes of Samsung and Google both having low-cost headsets finding their way into the homes of millions of people around the world.

“The technology powering these platforms is already in most people’s pockets, so all that’s needed is the headset itself to unlock these immersive experiences,” Lategan says.

This is only the beginning, however, with Google and Apple expected to release VR headsets of their own later this year.

For brands and marketers, Lategan says virtual reality is the new frontier that will offer unprecedented insight into user behaviours and the ability to track their interests.

“Imagine putting a heat map over the world with which we interact. While browsing furniture in your virtual shopping experience, for instance, every move you make will be captured in great detail,” Lategan says. “The moment your gaze lingers on a particular item, marketers will be able to identify and catalogue your interest in that product.”

In doing so, they will be able to specifically customise your experiences to your preferences, thereby providing you with unique and contextually relevant promotions and offerings.

A downside to the frontier of VR is it does raise, as Lategan notes, “familiar privacy concerns”, as greater levels of measurability might lead marketers to abuse the wealth of information at their disposal to subliminally influence buying habits.

Lategan says another aspect that makes VR so exciting for marketers relates to their “holy grail”; Evoking emotion, tying that feeling to their message or better yet, a product, in order to imply some connection to it.

“In a way, VR can be seen as the ultimate empathy machine. It will allow creators to induce feelings of familiarity, serenity, fear, claustrophobia - all by leveraging the sense of presence you feel when immersed in these virtual worlds,” he says.

“Users will no longer be passive observers but actively engage in the moment. They will be in control of the narrative guiding their experience. This will allow creators to choose how they will reward or, in a Pavlovian sort of way, punish the outcome of that narrative in order to elicit a specific response.”

However, for the near future at least, Lategan says VR still has a long way to go before it can achieve true immersion, with the “fledging medium” still in “year one”.

“We still have so much that we need to learn about the language of storytelling in this new format,” Lategan says. “There is no telling where it might go next. One thing that is for sure - it will take what we understand to be ‘engagement’ to an entirely different level.”

For more information, visit thefutureofmedia.co.za. Alternatively, connect with them on Twitter using the #FOM2016 hashtag.