At the Cannes Lions advertising festival, media companies like Gannett and AOL pitched a new vision for marketing that includes branded content and virtual reality (VR). "VR was a popular
talking point among ad agency executives, tech companies such as Samsung were demonstrating their latest hardware, and online services such as YouTube were showcasing the contentnow available on their platforms," according to a report in the
Wall Street Journal. Salespeople and VR experts from Gannett’s USA Today Network showed a sizzle reel for its upcoming weekly VR show called “VRtually There,” as well as
branded VR content it’s already produced for companies such as Honda. The company also demonstrated a new VR ad unit it created, which it’s calling a “cubemercial." It places the
viewer inside a virtual-reality room. "Brands will be given the opportunity to showcase videos or products on each of the cube’s six sides, said Gannett’s chief revenue officer, Kevin
Gentzel," the report said.
Read the whole story at Wall Street Journal »