The business value of 3D content for digital storytelling is obvious: it enables you to take your customers through a customized world that demonstrates what you can do. While some still cling to the prejudice that 3D content is ‘gimmicky’, this kind of experience can illustrate your products and solutions in action using realistic settings that your customer will recognize. This makes 3D content a unique asset for your digital storytelling arsenal, provided your digital storytelling software can handle this kind of content.
How 3D Content Tells Your Story in a Unique Way
Using 3D content, your business can draw the invisible connections between physical assets or to show how services are connected, even when they’re physically distant from one another. Some sectors struggle to show the value of their connected products – especially in the software and high-tech sectors, where the ‘action’ can be intangible or invisible. 3D content can visualize these situations.
For example, a technical product manufacturer can show their interconnected solutions in action on a refinery, how these are linked to related solutions in international pipelines, storage facilities, carbon capture, wind power, and power storage. Understanding interlinked concepts like this can be hard without something three-dimensional we can truly grasp.
Another unique quality that 3D content has is the ability to show new possibilities that just don’t exist yet. This means that new technology or products can be shown in a realistic setting, even when there are no existing examples that you can show in action.
The Metaverse: a 3D Internet
The metaverse has gained a lot of attention in recent years, but many feel that it has failed to live up to the promises. It’s important with emerging technologies to take hyperbolic claims with a pinch of salt. Forget the hype and poorly conceived demonstrations and look at ‘the metaverse’ for what it truly is: a 3D internet.
When you strip it down to this basic concept the true potential is laid bare.
Working ‘in the metaverse’ might be a number of years away, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore this incredible technology. Solid applications for 3D content in the metaverse already exist. Digital storytelling provides measurable value to business, and this will certainly be one of the things that makes a successful jump into the metaverse.
Businesses can gain an advantage by getting to grips with 3D content early-on and exploring how they can use it. Before it becomes necessary to have these capabilities it is wise for companies to already understand how to use 3D content to generate business value.
Starting with a demonstrably practical application like digital storytelling, companies can learn to master 3D content without stretching their resources for merely hypothetical gains.
Using 3D Content With Digital Storytelling Software
Digital storytelling is remarkable for its ability to engage audiences and form strong emotional responses that cement memories in our brains. Things are easier to understand when they’re communicated in the format of ‘a story’, and digital media makes it possible to do this prolifically.
Businesses typically use professional digital storytelling software to deploy digital stories across multiple distribution points, organize media into a single library, and create multiple targeted versions of stories that reach specific audience groups.
Engagement
When it comes to video content, even digital stories, our attention span is limited. By adding this kind of engaging content to digital stories, it can create a natural ‘break’ that resets the viewers attention span and keeps it interesting.
Interaction
Many companies struggle to find ways of fostering interaction with their digital storytelling. This is especially crucial for immersive Customer Experience Centers, which are the perfect venue for displaying your 3D content. By exploring a three-dimensional model of your product, or walking through a virtual factory, you can give your customers a special and interactive experience that brings them closer to your brand.
Customizable
3D media can also be customizable, by creating multiple variations of virtual environments that display your customer’s own factory using your robots, or showing their branded store with your products. Common elements can be reused, and different ‘rooms’ can be added when needed. Your digital storytelling software helps you achieve this and deploy these customized experiences with minimal effort.
When you add engaging 3D content to digital stories, it can add a new dimension to the experience. So, it’s worthwhile selecting digital storytelling software that can handle 3D content.
The Right Setting for 3D Content in Business
While the value and capabilities of 3D are already becoming clear, what is not clear is the best way of using it.
Is there a ‘right’ setting for 3D content? There are numerous ways that we can experience 3D environments, and businesses will want to know how to direct their investment. Some prognostication would be useful here, but in reality, it is hard to know which technologies will become the most popular ways to explore 3D content in the future.
There are many ways you can display 3D content today. Let’s look at some of the options on the market right now.
VR Goggles
VR goggles have been around for about 30 years, starting with the SEGA VR. Working examples were uncommon for several years, and the technology has struggled to gain popularity. As it became easier to produce 3D content in the 2000s, VR goggles started to return to the public consciousness. Many find them clunky and distracting, and this can limit their applicability. Interaction also relies on a third technology such as gloves or gesture sensors.
Small Screens
From smartphones to desktop computers, smaller screens are the most common way that people explore 3D content. This may remain the primary way for people to interact with the metaverse for a number of years.
Large Screens and Briefing Centers
have a lot to gain from 3D content. These environments are already well set up for this kind of content, as they typically have large screens and digital signage. By interacting directly with a touch-capable screen, customers can easily explore 3D environments and make them curious to learn more.
Customer Experience Centers and Immersive Experiences
bring a new level of brand experience to the traditional briefing center, often exceeding customer preconceptions. Experience centers often use immersive technologies such as immersive experience rooms to show digital stories and presentations. These are the ideal environment for 3D content because they’re totally immersive without having the drawbacks of cumbersome goggles.
Games and D2C Content
Gamification has become a real buzzword for marketers wanting to create engaging brand experiences and events for their customers. These are especially valuable as part of a D2C initiative as games can help solidify attachment to a brand by encouraging customers to invest themselves (time spent) on building a relationship via a game. 3D content can bring these to life, make them more interactive and engaging.
YouTube Content or Website Videos
Video content has grown immensely in value, and it accounts for a staggering share of internet traffic. Most people prefer to watch a video than read the equivalent text. In many cases, your video content will be the very first point of contact with your brand. Adding 3D content judiciously can boost engagement and help you demonstrate things that are intangible or otherwise hard to show.
Wherever You Want
It’s good to know that with the right digital storytelling software, it doesn’t matter which screen or device your customers use to experience your 3D content. The process for creating the content itself is largely the same, regardless of how you intend to deploy it. This means that you can reuse your 3D content in any setting, provided your digital storytelling software supports it.
Using 3D Content With Your Digital Storytelling
While still developing rapidly, 3D content has already made a niche for itself. Younger generations will become more adept with this kind of content, for whom it is already part of their digital landscape.
One thing is certain: 3D content isn’t going away and will only become more important in the future.
When businesses recognize that the much-hyped ‘metaverse’ is essentially a 3D internet, it is clearer that ignoring it is a dangerous path to take. Mastering 3D content is the first step toward building a metaverse presence, and companies can immediately start to generate value from this content.
If you’re still feeling hesitant, it’s worth reflecting on those poor retailers and businesses that shunned the internet as a ‘fad’ in the 1990s. Ignoring the immense potential of this technology out of fear of the technical aspects is to be done at your peril.
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