The big problem with most data collection is that we have to make huge assumptions about what it means. So, for example, we assume that when somebody clicks through to a story they are interested in it. We assume that if they leave a page open that they are reading and engaging with it. And we assume that if they view what we want them to see, they are engaged with it.
But those are just assumptions and in the past, the only way to check the truth of them was by fixing people with eye tracking gear. That was obviously a very difficult thing to do, as people aren’t just going to let you fix machines to their temples so that you can actually see where they’re looking.
Or rather, they weren’t going to do that. Of course, with the ever wider introduction of VR that has entirely changed. For when they use VR we have to track where people are looking. How else can we make sure that we know what to show them?
And that means we can now stop making those assumptions. Instead, we can actually find out what people are actually paying attention to. And as people’s attention is the commodity of the 21st century, that additional accuracy can make a huge difference.
The question you’re no doubt asking is, yes, but will this make a difference to me?’ Let’s explore that.
What actually works?
With VR you can’t just see that something in general interests people, but what specific aspect of it actually catches their attention. So, if they’re watching a video, you know what they’re focusing their attention on.
This allows you to pull apart far more delicately what makes a hit a hit and a flop a flop (or what part of the flop didn’t actually flop).
This additional layer of data will allow you to upgrade and improve whatever product you’re producing in record time. No longer is it just about making educated guesses. Now you can make truly informed decisions. That means no more striking out in what seems to be generally the right direction. Instead, the writing will be on the wall and you’ll be heading straight for your goal.
A finer grained analysis
Even better, you don’t have to restrict your information to general information either. Instead, you can very quickly discover what works for what people. Just like you can divide people online based on their interests, age, sex, job description and income level, so will you be able to do the same in VR.
But as you’re getting far more fine-grained information from your VR, that means you can do a far more fine-grained analysis of what interests specific people, what holds their attention and what bores them.
That, in turn, will make it easier to fine-tune your approach towards the people that you’re interested in. You will, in fact, be able to thin-slice your audience into tiny cells and know exactly what will press whose buttons.
Emotional response
Nor will we only be able to find out what people are looking at. As our understanding of human behavior becomes ever more fine-tuned, how they look at things will tell us a huge amount about their underlying motivation as well. Are they scared, interested or excited by what you’re showing them? Soon that will be possible to read simply from the way they interact with things.
Don’t believe me? Statistical analyses are already revealing which way a supreme court member is going to vote based on their voice. Now imagine how much more we’ll know when we get all that data from VR and analyze it? We’ll be able to know more about what motivates people than even they know themselves.
And yes, that might be a little bit scary. But that’s not going to stop anybody from collecting and analyzing that data. And if you’re not one of them, then you’re going to know less about your audience than the competition.
And that, in this modern climate, is not a place you want to be.
Virtual engagement
The biggest drawback of online shopping is that people can’t actually see the product as well as they would like. For many, this still makes it undesirable to buy products online.
VR can obviously change that. With the ability for people to check out objects in a VR environment without having to go to the shop, many things that otherwise would not have been sellable online suddenly become interesting to shoppers.
The thing is, this offers us another advantage. After all, when we have shoppers engaging with virtual versions of our product we don’t just give them insights into our products but they give us insights into how they’re going to use them.
That means that suddenly we’re getting feedback on what people do and look at, which in turn can be correlated with who buys what. In this way, problem areas in the products we’re producing can be identified in record time and corrected with new iterations of the same or similar products.
Last words
Most people don’t know it yet, but when they use virtual reality they’re giving up a huge amount of information about what they’re interested in and why. It is simply a matter for us to take that data analyze it and use it to create products which suit their needs (or those of our advertisers) even better.
It doesn’t end there, either. With better statistics of what people are doing, we can hone our message to create more engagement and interest, as well as make sure advertisers understand the true power of what we’re offering them.
No longer will we be analyzing advertisement and marketing based on clicks, bounces and dwell times. When we understand the true power of VR we will realize how crude those measures are. Instead, we’ll be able to analyze, assess and truly influence attention to a level we haven’t seen before.
That’s the true power of VR analytics and that is why not taking actions will be a disaster for you and your company.
