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Virtual reality was brought about to the public in 1989, after longstanding developments within a multitude of scientific organizations, such as NASA. Having had an omnipresent reputation as a variable in remote operations ('remote-controlled')for technical research and academic environments, also known as teleoperations, VR has come along way since that time. Jaron Lanier, a founder of VPL Research (Visual Programming Languages), coined the term ‘Virtual Reality’ as ‘a computer generated, interactive, three-dimensional environment in which a person is immersed.’ Since then, the public has become increasingly awe-inspired by VR's endless possibilities,with advances in this technology moving further away from the 'primitive'. Thomas Zimmerman, also one of the early pioneers of the VPL landscaping during the 1980s, points to the beginning of a futuristic market. Newsweek reported that Lanier and Zimmerman, contributors to Atari, came out with the first VR headset, the EyePhone. The EyePhone, a far cry from scientist, Ivan Sutherland's Ultimate display(see VR timeline), a non-commercialized VR head-set of the 1960s, was still not quite ready for an all-encompassing embrace by the general public. Now, in 2017, VR continues to regenerate itself, in order to reach the 'mass market.'

With the convergence of diverse technological mediums, marketing has migrated from more traditional outlets toward the research, expansion, and utilization of Virtual Reality (VR) platforms. According to the Journal of Marketing Management, marketing is now conceptualized as less theoretical and more practical, with many businesses utilizing an ‘adverworld’ framework, where user-avatar interfaces allow marketers to ‘include holographic interfaces, haptic devices, and nanotechnologies which imbue everyday objects with ‘intelligent’ properties that enable them to communicate with each other and learn from their human controller (Saren, et al., 2013).’ Of course, marketing in the growing realm of VR will require continuous research, followed by losses and gains in a trial-and-error attempt to understand this new form of consumption in a new age.

New Media Marketing on the Virtual Reality Frontier

Contemporary marketers are unable to estrange themselves from the growing reality of VR as a household phenomenon, despite VR marketing research in its relative 'infancy.' Marketers first have to understand 'virtual-world context,' and this means researchers will have to position themselves as actors within an avatar-based world, as one example proposed by marketing strategists, Harwood & Ward, 2013. Mindi Chahal, writer for Marketing Week, cites how brands must resist the urge to 'view VR as a shiny new plaything;' instead, allowing real and augmented space to co-exist, exist separately, yet not desist from the bottom line. For marketers of any brand, this means that perceptions must flow along the worldview of 'limitless imagination,' to understand that pubic consumption will not only focus on virtual gaming communities or even the virtual as otherworldly and purely recreational; it is also an important tool for storytelling.

Marketing in the growing realm of VR will require continuous research, followed by losses and gains in a trial-and-error attempt to understand this new form of consumption in a new age.

Katherine Crisp, UNICEF's marketing strategist and supporter of VR takes her cause seriously; and VR provides just one more outlet to do so. 'Clouds over Sidra,' which tells a visual story of Syrian Refugees, promises reduced costs through campaigning, but also makes the company marketing strategy more compelling via public interaction. 'The fact that VR is not just one piece of hardware, according to Marketing Week, means brands have greater choice in how they choose to deploy VR activity.' With VR, there is something for everyone.

'The fact that VR is not just one piece of hardware means brands have a

greater choice in how they choose to deploy VR activity' -Marketing Week

Angela Gamba, Vice President of WE Communications, provides a more depth-of-field look through the many lenses that VR has to offer, for consumers and marketers alike. She notes how marketers must be more intuitive to the reaction and interactions of users with their product, not so much regarding the complex technology surrounding VR. While this an important factor in learning how to reach the public through brand management, marketers will become increasingly responsible for learning the building blocks of this multifaceted technology (PR Week).

VR is even paving way within the educational sector. A study on mixed marketing and real world scenarios, reported by the British Journal of Educational Technology, supports the notion that VR can move individuals from passive to active participants, increasing complex problem-solving skills. In the business world, this is ever important, as traditional learning methods are inevitably being replaced with hybrid courses; it is a very real possibility that marketers will also find a niche in this arena (Wang, 2012).

From VR to AR, and PR to storytelling, gaming, and academics, the road to effective marketing techniques is ever-widening its reach through research and practical applications. Although VR and AR have been around for decades, the participatory culture of the public, as of 2016, is just beginning to grow. While consumers of the general public still have yet to wholly adopt VR in its entirety, marketers will play a larger role in shaping the masses through its own education of VR technologies to fit a particular target market. The border-scapes that once kept VR non-commercialized have disappeared, and the pathways toward Virtual Reality's new frontier is set to be pioneered.