NextVR is done explaining the “how” of the broadcasting in virtual reality, and now is moving on to “why” it should be among consumers’ top sources for live entertainment, alongside ABC, CBS and other traditional media powerhouses.
The VR content maker, which recently moved from Laguna Beach to Newport Beach, rebranded itself as a consumer-focused company.
Irvine-based INK, NextVR’s advertising agency of record since May, spearheaded the effort, which includes a new logo, corporate identity, website updates, and TV commercials and ads suited for VR broadcast.
“The persona of the company has been wrapped in the technology and engineering of our platform that makes it possible,” said Chief Executive David Cole, who co-founded NextVR in 2009 with DJ Roller. “The rebrand is an opportunity for us to restate the next stage in the company’s mission, which is really a relationship directly with the consumer. When you think of consuming virtual reality content live—what’s on tonight in VR—we absolutely want you to think Next VR, just like you would think of tuning [into] a broadcaster like NBC, ESPN. And that’s why the company’s message needs to be to the consumer, and not to the industry, and not about the technology anymore—but about consumer experience.”
On A Roll
The rebranding follows a deal with NBA Digital in New York to live-stream National Basketball Association games in virtual reality during the upcoming season. The first game, between the Sacramento Kings and the San Antonio Spurs, aired last week, and the full one-game-per-week schedule is to be announced next month.
NextVR, which employs about 70, completed an $80 million round of funding led by several technology companies in Asia a few months ago, bringing the total raised to date to about $115.5 million.
“Capitalization definitely was a component of our execution strategy, but it certainly wasn’t a contingency,” Cole said, declining to disclose the terms of the NBA deal. “We were fairly well capitalized before. What the recent round, Series B, has given us is a very substantial amount of runway for scale and globalization.”
NextVR signed a five-year agreement with Fox Sports this year to broadcast its sporting events. It also has partnered with Beverly Hills-based Live Nation Worldwide Inc., one of the world’s largest event companies, to bring “hundreds” of live concerts to fans around the world through virtual reality.
Monetizing Content
Its VR content is accessible through the NextVR app in the Oculus Home app store for Samsung Gear VR users. Cole said the company plans to use the “same monetization opportunities that already exist for over-the-top content delivery—subscriptions, advertiser support or sponsorship and individual pay-for-views.”
Sponsorships are part of the “immersive branded experiences” INK is developing to fill the traditional commercial slots during the games.
“They’re simple but immersive stories that are based on access—imagine being transported someplace that you otherwise wouldn’t have access to,” said INK President Todd Henderson, explaining that those spaces may include a locker room or a backstage area at the concert venue. “It could be anything … [with brands] represented in those experiences in a really natural, organic and subtle way.”
His agency also is developing traditional 30- and 60-second TV commercials for NextVR, as well as “alternative versions that will be experienced in a virtual reality.”
“There’s a new medium taking shape, and we are very excited about our role in helping to define that—how do brands engage with consumers in this very immersive way that breaks the confines of what traditional advertising looks and feels like,” Henderson said. “I’m watching the game as if I’m live there and I can turn around, so we have to think about what’s behind us and how do we brand those elements, how do we use these canvases to tell our story in and around that game.”
NextVR also is promoting itself through its broadcast and hardware manufacturer partners.
“We recently carried highlights in real time from the Notre Dame football game in partnership with NBC sports, and as part of that relationship, NBC Sports on-air promoted the virtual reality experience and drove viewers to watch on their devices,” Cole said, adding that NextVR will be present at big-box retailers like Best Buy, enabling Samsung and other VR goggle manufacturers to “showcase our content as one of the values to add for purchasing their hardware.
“It’s mutually beneficial—we can have that first experience with the consumer as they try virtual reality at retail … we become a defining part of [what] VR is for a new consumer—it’s about watching the NBA game as if you’re there,” he said. “Our distribution partners, the hardware providers—we collateralize their product. We are something you can do with it, so they sell the television and we sell the station.”
