Over the course of the past month and a half, we’ve brought to you much insight about this whole new world of 360 degree ads and virtual reality advertising. Hopefully, your eyes have been opened to the many possibilities these new mediums present and you recognize that you can integrate both into your digital marketing strategies today. There’s no need to wait for virtual reality headsets to reach critical mass nor do you have to go through the expense of creating a 360 video experience that comes with VR mode (see Part 2 in our series). Still, some are on the fence and rather than experiment with something new they take a wait and see approach.

Perhaps the reason why many employ this tactic is because too often people are afraid of the unknown – it’s basic human nature. But we’re here to tell you that there’s no need to fear emerging technologies like 360 degree content, virtual reality and even augmented or mixed reality. For those of us in the fields of marketing and advertising, we’re always looking for new and innovative ways to reach our target customers. We search for methods to drive engagement and boost ROI and vehicles that will make our product stand out from the clutter. Which is why now is the best time for brands to start leveraging these new technologies and take the first mover advantage.

Marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk is one of the first experts to point this out. One of his infamous quotes is that “Marketers ruin everything”.

A novice observer may think that he’s bashing the entire fields of marketing and advertising, but in fact the opposite is true. His words are actually a warning to brands and advertisers everywhere that he who acts first wins. As marketers, our job is to watch where people’s attention is going and when we find a new place that is capturing their attention we move there. A perfect illustration of this is the recent Pokemon Go phenomenon. As the app exploded, it seemed like every other news article was about the new craze and how businesses were trying to leverage Pokestops. Vaynerchuk argues this strategy has been going on since the beginning of man and will always be the case. As he says, “That’s just the way it is and that’s fine.”

With these words in mind we thought it would be helpful to review a few recent stats related to 360 and VR content as they help illustrate that the public’s attention and interest in these technologies is steadily growing. If you take a look at the results of a study conducted this past summer by Greenlight Insights you’ll see how positively consumers view brands that sponsor virtual reality.

Even more indicative of the consumer’s interest in VR and 360 degree content are some of the figures below. People are hungrily consuming the content that’s already out there and more and more is being created and shared daily.

• Nearly 250K 360 videos already posted to YouTube
• Millions of Facebook users watch 360 videos daily
• 360 content uploads on YouTube doubled between March-June 2016
• The Top 10 360 videos on YouTube have garnered more than 21 mil views and that figure grows daily
• 50 mil Google Cardboard enabled apps have launched since Cardboard rolled out 2 years ago
• Mobile VR headset sales predicted to hit 14.5 mil in 2016
• VR & AR market predicted to swell to $120 billion by 2020

So in this moment in time as 360 degree, virtual, augmented and even mixed reality tech comes on line, there’s tremendous opportunity for those brands savvy enough to embrace these immersive platforms. The first mover advantage is in plain sight. So what are you waiting for? Start experimenting with this new technology today, because before you know it, we marketers will ruin it again!