Positive Social Change: Microsoft Summit 2017

360dgrees and Microsoft – showcasing how interactive reality is shaping the face of connected retail at NRF 2018

Just over a week ago, Microsoft launched their free global Tech Summit in Sydney. This is their first ever attempt at this event, and a success story which will now move ahead into 13 other countries. This first summit took place at the International Conference Centre (ICC) in Sydney’s Darling Harbour from 14-17 November and brought C-Suite/BDMs, Partners and the tech community together over the course of one week. The conference provided expertise, skills, and connections for businesses and individuals to network, discover, and share their solutions in a digital landscape that is transforming at an increasingly rapid pace.

The Summit was kicked off by local Microsoft managing director Steven Worrall, who announced that “cultural transformation is the vital ingredient to any successful digital transformation”. Microsoft’s global head of industry, Toni Townes-Whitley elaborated on a similar theme, asserting that public and commercial leaders have a responsibility to establish business success that delivers a positive social impact. “Global companies like Microsoft need to think of the broader societal implications and transform responsibly,” she said, a statement that strikes a chord with what we are trying to achieve at 360dgrees.com.

360dgrees.com was the first ISV (Independent Software Vendor) Microsoft partners that were selected & invited to participate and showcase within the beating heart of the summit – the expo area. We were hugely excited to be involved as this is the world’s first expo where ISVs were included in the Data and AI story. As Microsoft partners, the Summit was a fantastic opportunity for us to share our transformative solutions, make new connections, and strengthen our existing relationships. However we also find the key themes and ideas shared at the conference to resonate strongly with our drives and beliefs, with a strong emphasis on success being driven by “the ability of companies to adapt both their leadership and their organisations for the digital era” as Worrall put it.

New technologies and solutions, like 360dgrees.com, are defining incredible new business opportunities at a rapid pace. From the global macro view to local industry deep dives, it’s a tangible solution to advance organisations’ digital transformation. But significantly, we are dedicated to ushering positive social change by revolutionising the way safety training is delivered. The fundamental goal of the 360dgrees.com platform is perfectly summarised by Microsoft’s mission statement – “empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more”. This is the core promise of our platform, to simply deliver the advantages of interactive reality software to anyone. The feedback from our customers and partners throughout the course of the week was overwhelmingly positive and we look forward to the future.

To learn more about 360dgrees.com safety training, visit 360dgrees.com/safety-training/.

The 360dgrees.com Platform Now Supports Flat Video Gamification

Gamification
by Max Harris, Media Producer at 360dgrees.com
  • 360dgrees.com’s Interactive Reality platform empowers anyone to create immersive, interactive experiences
  • The platform now supports flat videos, allowing users to augment non-360 video with POS and interactive links between videos that the viewer can control.
  • The process is simply, easy, intuitive and powerful.

As Mixed Reality has rapidly expanded into the mainstream in 2017, devices and software platforms have become increasingly accessible and affordable. The Oculus Rift and HTC Vive dropped in price significantly (triggering major market share booms), consumer-grade headsets like the Oculus Go were announced, and development platforms like Apple’s ARKit and Nvidia’s Holodeck were opened.

360dgrees.com is committed to bringing Interactive Reality further into the mainstream with a video platform that empowers anyone to create dynamic immersive experiences. Simply upload 360 degree video content and augment it with interactivity through a simple and intuitive interface.

Now 360dgrees.com is excited to announce the introduction of flat video functionality, meaning that anyone, with any camera, can easily and quickly create and gamify dynamic, interactive, flowing experiences.

This is achieved by placing interactive hotspots into your videos – points of sales that can open forms, link to websites, or transition to other videos – empowering the creation of flowing narrative paths that the user can choose between. These hotspots can be moving or static; invisible or represented as virtual objects. The implication is that you can gamify your content, and create decision-based interactive videos that can be used for entertainment, education, or training. You can insert custom or preset icons, badges, timers, text, picture-in-picture interfaces – and the possibilities are limitless. The platform also provides analytics and insights into how users respond to the interactivity and the choices that they made.
Check out this interactive video created for Sydney Aquarium on the 360dgrees.com platform which employs both flat and 360 degree video. Click the interactive hotspots in the video represented by the shark and the “buy” graphics to trigger different sections of the video.

To sign up or learn more about the platform, visit 360dgrees.com. Our experts are waiting to empower you to create your own interactive experiences.

How to engage your audience using new video trends

Readers, users and potential customers have access to content 24 hours a day.
How do you truly engage with them?

Thanks to digital marketing it is easier than ever to reach out to your target audience. Almost every demographic spends hours a day on social media and online, meaning it is easy to get in front of the right people based on their interests.The issue that so many brands struggle with is not just how to get in front of users, but how to be sure to get them curious enough to hold on to their attention. This is a huge challenge as consumers come across hundreds of marketing messages as they go about their day.

Using video to get ahead

In 2016, Facebook updated its algorithm to favour video, giving priority to this medium over static pictures or lines of text. According to website Entrepreneur, it is much more effective for a content creator to produce a one-minute video instead of 500-word article with the exact same content. The publication explains that video content is on a mind-blowing rise and that it is more engaging because of its ability to involve multiple senses. Indeed, YouTube reports a 100% rise in mobile video consumption every year.
People aren’t just watching video, they’re using it to research purchases. Effectively too – marketing destination Hubspot reports that 64% of users are more likely to purchase a product online after watching a video.

Video for business

Major brands are harnessing the power of video up front and centre, with examples on the Microsoft HoloLens website and the homepage of Alaska Tours.
Popular CRM Zendesk has a homepage video execution, as do clothing brand Uniqlo and portable camera sellers GoPro (which makes sense!).
Beginning a user experience with video makes sense as the medium is a short, intense and engaging way of sharing a brand’s ‘story’.
While homepage videos are modern and compelling, they do lack an essential ingredient – interaction between the product and the user. You can watch a video and enjoy what’s presented to you, but you can’t change the perspective or control the video yourself.

Taking video to the next level!

Thanks to 360 videos it is now possible to put customers directly in the action of a video.
This goes beyond changing perspective and allowing a view from any angle, even though this feature provides a stunning point of difference.
As a marketer, you can now push the effectiveness of your video even further by creating ‘hotspots’. When clicked on by a customer, these spots will take them to different destinations.

You can use a hotspot to direct customers to websites in new browsers, take viewers to specific viewpoints and to allow users to ‘click to buy’. Adding hotspots is something that video editors can do without too much trouble during the post-production process.
A recent execution shows a 360degree view from outside and in the lobby of Sydney’s Governor Macquarie Tower. Included in the video is a hotspot that will take you inside the lobby of the tower. Filmed on behalf of one of Sydney’s largest property companies, this videos is the beginning of the company’s strategy to roll out 360 immersive experiences to clients and partners. The video has the potential for extra layers to be added, providing viewers with information relating to the building on display.
In 2017, more and more businesses will come on board with the power of video.
The most progressive ones will use it as an active rather than a passive way of engaging with their audience.

What kind of business are you running?

To find out more about 360 degree and interactive video, contact us via www.360dgrees.com

The humane side of virtual reality

Virtual reality is the ‘next big thing’, an industry on the precipice of being worth billions that will transform industries including entertainment, engineering and education.

What many people who are resistant to this fancy new technology don’t realise is that it also has the power to help those in need.

Virtual reality and 360degree video can help people to understand what’s beyond their own world. By giving people an understanding of a completely different reality you can prompt them to take actions.

One such example is The Guardian’s recent immersive content 6×9, which allowed users to virtually experience what it is like to be placed in solitary confinement in prison. The purpose of this interactive video was to create a dialogue around the psychological impact of prisoner isolation.

Elsewhere, one agency is using the power of 360degree video to connect WWII veterans with tours of war memorials around the world. This venture was produced to essentially provide a free travel experience to those too old to journey to the destinations that had been so impactful on their lives.

The same agency has worked on a project based in Zambia, which highlighted the plight of the disabled in developing nations. By demonstrating the struggles of someone with limited mobility, 360 video was able to play a part in raising awareness about specialty wheelchairs for people who live on rough and difficult to access terrain.

In Japan, Virtual Reality has been used to treat phantom limb pain, which affects amputees who are plagued by discomfort from body parts that no longer exist. Researchers have discovered it is possible to reduce the pain caused by this affliction by creating replica visuals of the amputated limbs.

Meanwhile, at charity galas in fancy hotels, guests of honour are able to put on a pair of virtual reality goggles to view first hand the work that the charity is doing on the other side of the world. Providing this up-close-and-personal experience can really bring home the charity’s message and help to increase donations.

And in the UK, Microsoft has worked with partners to help young people with autism by introducing them to coding as well as virtual reality. By introducing them to the idea of building something and then seeing it work, the goal was to show participants how they can transfer an interest in IT to a career in the industry.

Virtual reality isn’t just something you watch, it is something you experience. This provides the potential to open doors not just to profits, but to positive change in the world.