LOS ANGELES — RubyVR has announced its partnership with BaDoinkVR and GameLink to provide free VR goggles to thousands of the companies’ customers.
RubyVR is the inventor and manufacturer of the Mailer VR goggles, which are lightweight and durable, and shippable to consumers with a standard postage stamp. The company also offers a complete line of VR headsets, delivering a turnkey service that includes custom printing, manufacturing, assembly and fulfillment of goggle orders.
RubyVR EVP Michael Donohue told XBIZ that most people are not aware of virtual reality and/or have never experienced it.
“As more sites are built with VR content, it makes sense to enable potential customers with a way to see what’s being produced, so an inexpensive VR goggle makes sense as a demand generation tool,” Donohue says. “Once someone sees quality VR content, they’re hooked.”
Donohue explains that printing a brand or message on the goggle uniquely reinforces that brand or message and is simply another place where marketing can be effectively used.
“For the adult entertainment industry, printing graphic images or porn related message can be problematic, as many customers want to have some anonymity, so custom branding can be expanded to include the actual material the goggle is made with,” Donohue notes, adding that “some sites go to the opposite extreme with absolutely no branding or printing, as in the case of GameLink.”
While BadoinkVR chose a branded version for its VRPorn.com promo, GameLink chose an unbranded version with a sophisticated black finish for its promotion.
For BaDoinkVR, its VRPorn.com promotion reportedly resulted in exceptionally high traffic, and user engagement, while GameLink will launch its new VR site by offering a free viewer to anyone who purchases a VR movie.
According to CEO Daniel Peterson of GenVR, the managing company of VRPorn.com, the site “is blowing up with people interested in VR.”
“But many of these people are new, have never tried VR, and don’t even know where to start,” Peterson explains. “So the first thing they need is VR goggles.”
“Our partnership with RubyVR and BadoinkVR allowed us to supply a huge amount of VR viewers to these users efficiently and cost-effectively. The response was overwhelming, peaking at 1,000 signups per hour,” Peterson told XBIZ. “RubyVR handled all the hard work and offered great support, and now there are a lot of happy new VR users in the world. This is reflected in significant site traffic and revenue increases coinciding with mailer deliveries.”
According to Jeff Dillon, Vice President of Business Development and Marketing at Eline.com, the managing company of GameLink.com, VR is currently the company’s fastest growing customer segment.
“For us to keep growing this customer base we need to get VR and VR viewers in the hands of potential customers,” Dillon explains. “Since we have tons of standard VOD customers, it is natural that some of them will transition to VR consumption.”
Dillon says that thanks to GameLink’s partnership with RubyVR, it was able to get viewers into the hands of customers in a timely manner.
“Many of our customers are experiencing VR for the first time and loving it,” Dillon says. “The promotion we ran was so successful we ran out of VR viewers in a month and had to reorder. RubyVR has a great turnaround time for reorders, so we didn’t leave anyone hanging.”
“Many marketing projects are run on a tight schedule with fast turnaround time requirements, so it’s important for a manufacturer to be quick on their feet,” Donohue concludes, noting that “RubyVR products are manufactured in the USA with state of the art manufacturing equipment and processes.”
RubyVR is crafted from a unique soft-touch material, using a wide range of premium skins, including latex, leather, velvet, and more, for a completely customizable product, and uses optically superior lenses designed to provide a wider field of view with no peripheral distortion, for an exceptional viewing experience.
In order to reach the widest possible audience, RubyVR works with all smartphones and is compatible with all virtual reality videos.
Donohue explains that the relationship between a goggle manufacturer and the industry is important for several reasons.
“The branding element is an obvious one, sincebrands are the result of lots of hard work and have an intrinsic value all their own, so representing a brand correctly is critical,” says Donohue. “There is also an upsell opportunity for recipients of a less expensive goggle who want to invest in a higher-end headset, creating revenue sharing income where the goggle manufacturer and the reseller can benefit.”
GameLink reportedly experienced an upsell rate of 15 percent of free goggles recipients who then bought the higher-end headset.
“Additionally,” Donohue concludes, “as we work with many mainstream and adult entertainment clients, we have a good sense of what works and can leverage that info to help optimize a project.”
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