What To Look For In A Virtual Reality Content Creation Company

 

So… you know how 99% of service providers are terrible?

(If you’re reading this – and you run a service business – you’re probably one of the good ones. Thank you for that!)

Companies that do virtual reality content creation are no different. In fact, because VR is such a new, rapidly growing market, they might be worse.

If you want to grow your business with VR content, this is bad news. You have two options:

1. Build your own virtual reality content creation team.
2. Learn to distinguish between good companies and bad ones.

Today’s article will help you separate the winners from the losers – by focusing on just three things. By the end, you’ll have no problem choosing which brand to work with. And you’ll be able to spot shameless pretenders from miles away!

Sound good? Read on.

1. Samples of past work in VR content creation

Maybe you are looking for the absolute best in the field of virtual reality content creation. Or perhaps you’d be happy with someone who just won’t mess up your project. Regardless, the first place to start is by looking at samples of past work.

VR is a brand new medium. It’s also a very different medium, unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Despite its visual nature, virtual reality is profoundly physical – thanks to the effect of being present inside the content. And since the viewer is in control, the usual rules for creating a scripted narrative fly out the window.

Whatever brand you choose to help you with virtual reality content creation, they have to be familiar with the medium. The first item on your checklist should be to establish if they have done it before.

Let’s talk about how you can do that.

Here’s what to look for:

When you’re doing your research, ask yourself: “How long has this company been in the virtual reality content creation game?”

Unless it popped up overnight (in which case you shouldn’t be considering it anyway), the team should have at least 3-5 samples to their name. You want to look for a sizzle reel, or a portfolio containing links and clips to their previous projects. Better yet, you should be able to test-drive a few of their VR experiences yourself!

If you have found a few samples, but they don’t look good, that should raise suspicions. If you can’t find anything at all, that’s a major red flag.

It’s not that a new company with no samples can’t do a good job with virtual reality content creation – it might! But why play guessing games with your money?

After the samples, it’s time to search for something even more important: proof of expertise…

2. Relevant expertise in virtual reality content creation

You’ve seen the samples – now what?

All these really tell you is that the company you want to hire have done VR content before. But you also want to make sure that they have the expertise to tackle your specific project.

Expertise comes in three flavors:

• Domain expertise in whatever field this company is working. In our case, it would be virtual reality content creation. You have looked at their portfolio and done some quick research to establish that they are competent in this area. Which means that they can make a VR experience that will, at the very least, not put your viewers on the vomit train.
• Specialization in one or more aspects of said field. Filming an immersive 360-degree video calls for a different set of skills than, say, developing a virtual reality game, or creating an interactive property tour in VR. If your project calls for a specific set of skills, you want to ensure that your company of choice is up to the task.
• Value-added expertise in complementary domains. Virtual reality content creation is only half the battle – there’s also marketing, testing, getting publicity, optimization, and more. If you think you will need help with these additional tasks, it would be a good idea to work with a company that can consult you, or do it for you.

Here’s what to look for:

To be frank, there is only one way to know for certain…

Look at the people who work at the company. Do they come from different backgrounds, specializing in different things? Then they might be able to offer you more than just virtual reality content creation services.

Next, see how many years of combined industry experience these people possess. That’s right – not just the company, but its employees. That should give you a clue about their level of domain expertise.

And finally, do a quick google search for the company name, and read up on various kinds of VR content they have been involved in. You should be able to learn what types of projects they prefer – that is, if they specialize in anything. Some companies have made a name for themselves making VR videos of concerts or sports games. Others specialize in virtual reality tourism. Still others are 100% about VR gaming. Do your due diligence.

Also, don’t forget to ask a representative of the company about all of these things. They should have good, honest answers ready for you – because they expect you to have objections and reservations. It’s normal!

3. Proven track record of successful VR content projects

This is it.

This is the most important element on our (very short) list. If you only have the time to do one of the three, do this one.

Because let’s face it: at the end of the day, you couldn’t care less about having a good-looking piece of virtual reality content! What you really want is results for your business.

Traffic. Subscribers. Sales. Media exposure. Name recognition. All that good stuff.

And while no company – however awesome – can guarantee you these results, past performance is the best predictor of future performance.

And besides… you are probably still worried if this company is secretly terrible. Which is a totally normal thing to feel – even after looking at the samples and vetting the expertise of people on the team.

So let’s put this concern to rest!

Here’s what to look for:

Great marketers have a rule about self-promotion: if a business is telling you something nice about themselves, don’t believe it.

This is exactly the approach we want you to adopt when you’re looking for a virtual reality content creation company. Don’t believe what the brand tells you. Instead, look at what their other clients are saying!

Here are some things you can do:

• Read, watch, or listen to client testimonials.
• If they have case studies describing each VR content project in detail, study those and pay attention to the results.
• Do an internet search for “[Name of the company] review.”
• Go the extra mile and look at their “Featured on / As seen on” website section – and then check what those news outlets actually wrote about that company.

So… how does The Draw Shop measure up?

We couldn’t rightly write this article without addressing the elephant in the room:

Is The Draw Shop a good virtual reality content creation company?

Or do we just talk the talk without walking the walk – kind of like your out of shape cousin yelling at the TV every Super Bowl? Let’s see…

First of all, we are not a VR content creation company.

We’re a video marketing company, with 1,000+ completed projects under our belt. And we also happen to create virtual reality animation.

Are we any good? Trick question – if we told you, you shouldn’t believe us! But you can ask some of our clients, including Google, Twitter, Uber… aaand we’ll stop name-dropping now.

Should you work with us? Probably not. That is, if you need a live action VR experience, we’re sad to say that The Draw Shop is not your muse.

But:

If you’re looking for virtual reality animation, and you could use the 30+ years of marketing and copywriting expertise we can offer… then we’ll answer your Bat-signal!

Wait… you don’t have a Bat-signal? Well that’s unfortunate. How are we supposed to come to your aid?

Oh, that’s right: you can book a no-cost, risk-free pow wow right here – and we’ll be in touch to discuss your idea post-haste!