The reality of virtual reality: exploring the Australian public’s attitude toward VR

It’s safe to say that virtual reality headsets are probably the consumer electronic gear of the year.

It sounds genuinely out of this world. But to ground things a bit we thought as part of the Foresight Project we’d monitor the Australian Public’s current attitudes towards virtual reality.Attitudes will likely change quickly once people get to experience VR for themselves, but it felt to us an appropriate time to see how people were feeling just as we’re poised for the VR revolution. In some way life will never be the same again. And of course, it gives some interesting strategic insight into the challenges and barriers facing VR in its early stages.

We’ve listed below some of the things we found to be interesting and insightful from the data.

KEY FINDINGS

The key findings of the research are:

• People seem to have absorbed the fact that virtual reality is an exciting and significant development, even if they’re not that up to speed on it.
• There’s a generational divide. Perhaps unsurprisingly those aged in their mid-40s or younger are more positive and keen to adopt the technology than older people.
• Excitement about VR peaks amongst younger, wealthier males.
• The statement that receives the strongest level of agreement amongst women is that “virtual reality technology will have an isolating and antisocial effect” at 60%. By contrast, for men it ranks fifth.
• On the whole concerns about the negative impact of VR tends to be shared across age groups.

IMPLICATIONS

In our opinion the implications of this research are:

• Young affluent men are an obvious and natural fit for VR. They are receptive and eager to adopt it. So if your brand has something to offer this audience then great – embracing virtual reality would seem to be an opportunity.
• Virtual reality’s Achilles heel would appear to be its potentially isolating and anti-social effect, particularly for women. The technology, generally, and female-targeted branding, specifically, might have to work hard to convince women of its relevance to them. This feels like a significant barrier for the technology.
• While the public generally get that VR is significant and exciting, they are still cautious about its net benefits. This might change with experience and familiarity, but at this stage mass marketers shouldn’t confuse their enthusiasm to embrace the new technology with their audience’s enthusiasm for using it.

INSIGHT 1

People seem to get the idea of virtual reality

People don’t need convincing that virtual reality is about more than gaming, and even if they don’t know that much about it, on the whole they get that it’s an exciting, significant thing.

INSIGHT 2

A young technology readily embraced by young people

Somewhat unsurprisingly, enthusiasm for Virtual Reality technology is driven by younger people. But it does beg the question how can Virtual Reality technology engage a broader constituency who arguably stand to benefit from it just as much?

INSIGHT 3

Will Virtual Reality come to be stereotyped as ‘boys toys’?

Young, male, higher household income. These are the three demographic groups most enthusiastic about Virtual Reality currently. Perhaps there’s a risk that Virtual Reality could be stereotyped as “boys toys”.

INSIGHT 4

Does VR need a strategy to attract women?