Disney's Enchanting VR Experience

Virtual Reality (VR) is in my opinion one of the coolest and smartest new pieces of technology making its way into the marketing world.  VR technology is still very new for your average consumer, but it has made a fantastic impression.  Many companies are getting involved in VR, but the two largest ones to date would be Samsung and Google.  While they are focusing most on developing new technologies and capabilities for VR, other companies have caught on to the VR trend and are using it as a unique marketing tool.

The best example of this I have seen as of late (or really ever) is a promotion for Disney's new live-action 'Beauty and the Beast' film.  VR was built to showcase incredible visual experiences, and Disney used it for just that.  Disney created a Virtual Reality version of the song "Be Our Guest" from the new movie, as shown from Belle's perspective.  The experience checks off pretty much anything you could ask for- it's colorful, exciting, and in-your-face in every direction.  If you have seen the movie, it is like experiencing it in a crazy, unique way, reminding you of how amazing it was in theaters.  If you haven't seen the movie, go ahead and get that credit card ready because this experience is all the motivation you need.  Disney promoted this VR on the Beauty and the Beast Facebook page, showing it via a 360-degree video and provided a link to the real VR experience if you have a viewer.  

Click here to view this incredible experience on Facebook, though there really is nothing like the real VR experience with a viewer.  Considering the Facebook video already has 10 million views and counting, I believe other companies should take note.  VR is the future, and it is about time marketing is catching up.

Pandora Joins the Music Streaming Wars

This week Pandora launched Pandora Premium, the company's new on-demand streaming service meant to compete directly with Spotify and Apple Music.  While introducing new products into any market is a good thing to fuel competition, I believe Pandora will fall pretty flat, and here is why.

Switching streaming services is way more complicated than switching brands of paper towels, it takes serious commitment. Convincing consumers to switch to a new service means spending the time and effort to switch over all of their current music and playlists, not to mention losing their favorite pre-made and automatically-updating playlists. In other words, the new product being offered needs to have some large differentiators from the rest of the pack to be successful.

So the question remains, does Pandora Premium seem worth the switch?  While the product is not being used by consumers yet, the description proclaims less-than-exciting service differentiators.  The two main selling points for Pandora Premium are its use of recommendations and its interface.  Pandora Premium tries to focus on giving consumers a more personalized experience with better recommendations, looking less towards new releases.  I can understand why some people would like that, but one of the major features that made streaming so wildly popular in the first place was its emphasis on listening to new music instantly.  In fact, some artists choose to exclusively stream their new albums on specific streaming services.  

Now for Pandora Premium's interface.  It sports a very sleek and clean design, featuring a color-adapting "now playing" page based off of each album art as shown below.  As appealing as the product looks, consumers are not going to switch services for just the look.  Besides that, Pandora Premium sports the same features as its competitors, including downloadable playlists, search capability, $10 price, and on-demand song choice.

Overall, this product could very well bring some new consumers from Pandora's free streaming service, but the chances of people switching from their current service are slim to none.  The lesson here is simple: being different is everything when breaking into a competitive market, and Pandora misses that mark.