This is a viewpoint by Ara Parikh, product marketing manager for OmniVert.

More and more, travel marketers today are using 360° VR Video, whether on Facebook, Snap, YouTube, or other distribution methods, to tell their brand stories.

Why invest in a new marketing format?

In today’s digital world, there is a staggering amount of content, branded or not, competing for audience attention. Ad performance for traditional, flat ads has suffered. Consider this: in 1994, the first banner ad launched on HotWired.com, resulting in a click-through rate of 44%. Today, an average banner ad might get a click-through rate of 0.05%, the kind of nosedive travel marketers cannot settle for.

So when 360° VR video ads double the CTR performance of standard ads in the travel vertical, marketers pay more attention.

360° VR vs. Standard Media SM) and Rich Media (RM) – SOURCE: Google Rich Media Gallery Benchmarks

But it’s not just performance that has led travel marketers to 360° VR. Story matters too.

360° VR Video is all about bringing audiences to a place they can explore digitally. 360° videos allow users to click and drag or move their phone to explore 360° of content, and ultimately be immersed in that content. This works especially well for travel, which is all about the promise of a place. Audiences can see a full 360° view from the top of a mountain, step inside a grand hotel, explore the galleys of a cruise ship, and more.

See case studies below for how top travel marketers are using 360° VR Video for both performance and story.

Airlines

Cathay Pacific’s 360° VR ad was the airline’s best digital campaign to date. The creative featured 360° videos of its business class lounge, airport experience, and cabins. The airline saw gains in unaided awareness (+27%), favorability (+25%) and preference for the airline (+12%). The ads also saw higher click-through rates of 0.33%. Customers spent an average of 20.8 seconds on the experience.

Travel tech/booking

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government launched a 360° video on YouTube, featuring scenic scapes of Tokyo and the Chogoku and Shigoku regions. The video has over 1.1 million views.  

DMO

TravelNevada was looking for a way to visually wow and inform potential travelers of the multitude of outdoors activities and little-known gems of Nevada. Its 360° video ad was distributed as an interactive banner with 1% CTR, a 9% engagement rate, and 53 seconds on average spent on the content.

This is a viewpoint by Ara Parikh, product marketing manager for OmniVert.

Opinions and views expressed by all guest contributors do not necessarily reflect those of tnooz, its writers, or its partners.